Focus Features has promoted Kiska Higgs to President of Production and Acquisitions, where she will oversee the studio’s films and team across development, production and acquisitions for Focus’s domestic and international titles. Higgs had previously served at Focus as Executive Vice President of Production & Acquisitions. She has spent the last fifteen years in the Universal family, as a production executive in Los Angeles at Universal Pictures and at the studio's London office, before joining Focus's new management team in 2016.
While at Focus, Higgs has been across all of the company’s film acquisitions, including Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman currently in release and Robin Wright’s Land which debuted at Sundance, on key productions such as Carnival Films and Julian Fellowes’ Downton Abbey and Working Title and Edgar Wright’s upcoming Last Night In Soho, and has been key in shepherding documentaries onto the slate such as Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and Dawn Porter’s The Way I See It.
Says Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski, “I’ve had the good fortune of working with Kiska for ten years, during which time her great taste, strong relationships, and insights into the marketplace and the culture have been a not-so-secret weapon for Universal and then Focus. We are extremely fortunate to now have her leading our creative team where she will grow our slate in scope, breadth, and ambition in ways that all of us at Focus are excited to be a part of.”
“Over the past five years, it’s been a privilege to continue building Focus into a home for filmmakers at NBCUniversal, a company I’ve called my own home for more than fifteen years,” said Higgs. “I’m thrilled to lead our creative team at a studio so uniquely dedicated to the global impact and power of storytelling through specialty film.”
Higgs will continue to work from Focus Features headquarters in Los Angeles.
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