Peter Kujawski is an American

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

executive who is the Chairman of

Focus Features Focus Features LLC is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as part of Universal Pictures, a division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in th ...

Biography

Kujawski is a native of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

who graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 2000. At Columbia, he studied with Award-winning filmmaker

James Schamus James Allan Schamus (born September 7, 1959) is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and ...

, who hired him as his assistant at

Good Machine Good Machine Productions was an American independent film production, film distribution, and foreign sales company started in the early 1990 by its co-founders and producers, Ted Hope and James Schamus. David Linde joined as a partner in the late ...

. After the studio was absorbed into

, Kujawski worked on Focus’ sales team, where he sold international movie rights of movies such as ''

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' (also simply known as ''Eternal Sunshine'') is a 2004 American romantic science fiction drama film written by Charlie Kaufman, directed by Michel Gondry, and starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. P ...

'' and '' Lost in Translation''. He was Manager of Creative Affairs and in 2010, was named Vice President of International Sales for Focus Features. In 2011, Kujawski joined

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

, where he served as EVP of Worldwide Acquisitions until 2014. He also oversaw acquisitions for Focus in that capacity. He helped acquire international rights for films such as '' The Wolf of Wall Street'', and ''

Zero Dark Thirty ''Zero Dark Thirty'' is a 2012 American thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. The film dramatizes the nearly decade-long international manhunt for Osama bin Laden, leader of terrorist network Al-Qaeda, after the S ...

.'' In 2014, Kujawski was named Managing Director Of Universal Pictures International Productions, which merged with Focus two years later. He was promoted to Chairman of Focus Features in 2016. Under his leadership, the studio has been the number one specialty studio in market share. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led a successful push for

premium video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

that made up for the company's losses in box office revenues.

Personal life and family

Kujawski is married to ''

Enough Said ''Enough Said'' is a 2013 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. The film stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette and Ben Falcone. Louis-Dreyfus plays Eva, a divorced m ...

'' producer Stefanie Azpiazu, and the couple lives in

Toluca Lake, Los Angeles Toluca Lake is an affluent neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley northwest of downtown. The name is also given to a private natural lake fed by wells and maintained by neighboring property owner ...

with their two daughters. He was dubbed "Kujo" by his colleagues.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kujawski, Peter Living people Columbia College (New York) alumni American film studio executives American chief executives 21st-century American businesspeople NBCUniversal people People from Philadelphia Year of birth missing (living people)