- Immediately after graduating college in Los Angeles, Gary Shapiro began his career in the movie business in New York City working for Columbia Pictures. Over the course of his career, which spans the 1970's through today, Gary held various executive marketing and distribution roles at Columbia Pictures, MGM, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Beacon Pictures, initially specializing in the United States and Canada and later managing the marketing of major Hollywood studio films and independent films worldwide. In the early years at Columbia Pictures he created the prototype for a college/university program which was then adopted by most major movie studios. He also was one of the early developers of grass roots marketing which became a valuable tool in marketing movies. Shapiro worked in various capacities on films at Columbia such as 'Easy Rider', 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner', 'Husbands', 'Funny Girl', 'The Way We Were', 'Only When I Laugh', 'Alamo Bay' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. In the mid 80's Shapiro moved into the production arena and was Executive Vice President of Production and Marketing for Longstocking Productions, which produced the first American 'Pippi Longstocking' movie along with legendary Swedish film company Svensk for Columbia Pictures. He designed the worldwide search for the new 'Pippi' that at the time, became a media sensation. Shapiro managed worldwide marketing activities with Columbia Pictures and Svensk. During the 90's, Shapiro was a Senior Vice President at Sony Pictures Entertainment working in the Columbia Pictures division. He later shifted to Sony's Triumph Films unit which developed, produced and marketed the studio's specialized films. Triumph morphed into Sony's Screen Gems, which today continues in a similar tradition. Following that he moved over to Beacon Pictures as Senior Vice President/Worldwide Marketing. Beacon's long slate of successful films were produced in conjunction with and distributed through Universal Pictures, The Walt Disney Co, and Time Warner's New Line Cinema. Among the titles he guided through the global distribution and marketing process for Beacon were 'Spy Game', 'Thirteen Days', 'The Family Man', 'Bring it on', 'The Emperor's Club' and 'Tuck Everlasting' all with major Hollywood stars. Several years ago, Shapiro began consulting with various film and entertainment industry firms. In this capacity, he helped create the initial worldwide marketing strategy for Paramount Picture's and Steven Spielberg's 'War of the Worlds', managed the marketing and grass roots campaign for Anschutz Film Group's /Walden Media 'Game of Their Lives', managed the strategy and execution of the highly successful and controversial independent film 'A Day Without a Mexican'. He has been a U.S. special consultant to one of Europe's most important publishing and media companies, Axel Springer AG of Germany, working on The Golden Camera Awards for the last three years. He also provides major Hollywood talent for film festivals, award shows, entertainment and special events worldwide. Previously Shapiro consulted with The Telluride Film Festival in the U.S., and currently consults with The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in The Czech Republic, The Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin and The Montblanc Company in Hamburg. He advises The Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) in Havana on cultural exchange programs between the U.S. and Cuba. He has been a contributing lecturer at The Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood, California and is a longtime member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and serves on The Foreign Language Film Selection Committee.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Michelle Clarke
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