Fox Searchlight announced on Monday that Ray Strache has been promoted to senior vice president of acquisitions and co-productions.
He will serve as co-head of the department along with Tony Safford, who serves as executive vice president of worldwide acquisitions. Strache and Safford will report to Fox Searchlight presidents Nancy Utley and Stephen Gilula and oversee the company’s acquisitions agenda and distribution opportunities throughout the world. They will also help identify projects for in-house development and production.
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“Ray’s tremendous achievements on both the acquisitions and productions front make him an indispensable part of the Searchlight family,” Utley and Gilula stated. “Ray has consistently raised the bar on the quality of movies we have acquired and we are thrilled to promote him.”
Fox Searchlight is active on the festival circuit. The company made a substantial profit on the acquisitions of both “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “The Way Way Back”, and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” was the indie darling of the spring and summer. The company is currently anticipating the Reese Witherspoon hiking film, “Wild.”
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Strach’s first position at the studio was as an assistant to then-Fox Chairman Tom Rothman. He was promoted to acquisitions manager and, most recently, held the position of vice president, acquisitions and co-productions at Searchlight.