About
Unified Pictures
Perfect unification of art and commerce
Perfect unification of art and commerce
Unified Pictures is a Los Angeles-based production company that develops, produces and finances original and engaging content for live-action and animated films. Founded in 2004 by Keith Kjarval and Kurt Rauer, Unified has produced over twenty feature-length films and has rapidly become a dynamic force in the motion picture industry.
In 2017, Unified North America began delivering high-end, commercial movies for global audiences, with a mandate to serve as a top-tier supplier of mainstream projects for both the studios and major independent distributors worldwide.
Most recently, Unified premiered What They Had at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival as well as the 2018 Toronto Film Festival. Written and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, the film stars Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Blythe Danner, and Robert Forster. Also in 2018, Unified produced S. Craig Zahler's crime-drama Dragged Across Concrete (starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn). The film premiered at the 2018 Venice Film Festival and was acquired by Lionsgate. Unified also produced Jeremy Ungar's millennial thriller Ride (starring Bella Thorne and Jessie T. Usher). The film premiered at the 2018 LA Film Festival. All three films are now in release!
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The animation division is in production on The Ark and the Aardvark, which tells the story of Noah's Ark from the perspective of the animals. The film is being directed by Academy Award nominee John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda, Shrek) and executive produced by Cecil Kramer (Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit). Miles Teller is Gilbert the Aardvark and has recently been joined by comedy A-listers Aubrey Plaza, Jenny Slate, Craig Robinson, Rob Riggle, and Stephen Merchant in the animated feature.
Explore moreUnified Pictures operates as an independent film production and distribution company dedicated to the development, financing, production and distribution of top-tier filmed entertainment. With several cutting-edge and artistically innovative films, Unified Pictures has established an impressive presence in a wide variety of film genres.
Founder/Producer
Producer Keith Kjarval founded Unified Pictures, along with Kurt Rauer, in 2004 and immediately formed a studio that develops, produces, and finances independent features. Unified are committed to producing thought provoking live action films as well as CG animated features.
Kjarval kicked off Unified’s inaugural year with the acquisition and distribution of the multiple di Donatello (Italian Oscar) award-winning film Don’t Move (starring Penélope Cruz).
Kjarval then launched production on his debut film, The Perfect Sleep. Combining the moody visual splendor of film noir with the psychological depth and intensity of a Dostoyevsky novel, Sleep was hailed by Time Out New York as “a marvel of budget-stretching innovation” and a “cross between Zentropa and Memento without the pretentiousness.”
2008 was another busy year for Kjarval and Unified as they struck a strategic alliance with David Lynch and his company, Absurda, to handle the foreign sales of its impressive library, including the acclaimed Lynch/Herzog collaboration My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. That same year Kjarval Executive Produced Lynch’s final film Inland Empire.
In 2009, Kjarval produced David Rosenthal’s touching film Janie Jones, about a washed-up rock star forced to take responsibility for the daughter he never knew he had. The film, which stars Abigail Breslin, Elisabeth Shue, and Alessandro Nivola, received the honor of being selected as a Gala Presentation at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival, where it received its world premiere.
Kjarval went onto a slate of films for Unified which included the thriller A Single Shot, which premiered at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival as well as the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. The film stars Sam Rockwell, Jeffrey Wright, Melissa Leo, and William H. Macy. In that same slate, Kjarval produced Decoding Annie Parker, which stars Samantha Morton, Helen Hunt, Rashida Jones, Aaron Paul, and Alice Eve. Kjarval rounded out the slate with the inspirational film The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete directed by acclaimed filmmaker George Tillman Jr. and starring Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Jeffrey Wright, and Anthony Mackie. The film premiered at Sundance.
Immediately following Mister and Pete, Kjarval produced the dark comedy Trust Me, directed by Clark Gregg and starring Gregg, Sam Rockwell, William H Macy, Amanda Peet, and Allison Janney. Next on Unified’s slate, Kjarval produced William H Macy’s directorial debut Rudderless, which stars Macy, Billy Crudup, Anton Yelchin, Laurence Fishburne, and Selena Gomez.
After closing Sundance with Rudderless, Kjarval sold the film to Paramount and started a new slate of films starting with the comedy Welcome to Me, which Kjarval Executive Produced and starred Kristin Wiig and was produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Kjarval then developed and produced the dark comedy The Driftless Area starring John Hawkes, Zooey Deschanel, Aubrey Plaza, Frank Langella, and Anton Yelchin. Next up on Unified and Kjarval’s slate are the intense crime drama Vincent-N-Roxxy starring Emile Hirsch and Zoë Kravitz, which was created by Kjarval and long time collaborator Gary Schultz. Next up for Kjarval was William H Macy’s second directorial effort The Layover a comedy starring Alexandra Daddario and Kate Upton.
After premiering The Layover, Unified launched a new slate and Kjarval went on to produce the critically acclaimed drama What They Had, which premiered at Sundance and stars two time Oscar winner Hilary Swank. The film also stars the two time Oscar nominated Michael Shannon along with Blythe Danner and Robert Forrester. Also on the slate was Jeremy Ungar’s thriller Ride, which stars Bella Thorne and Jesse T Usher, which tells the very timely tale of an Uber ride gone terrifyingly wrong. Rounding out the slate was Craig Zahler’s Dragged Across Concrete starring multiple Oscar winner Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn.
On the animation side of Unified, Kjarval is currently in production on a animated feature, The Ark and the Aardvark, created by Kjarval and written by Philip LaZebnik (Prince of Egypt, Mulan, and Pocahontas) directed and produced by John Stevenson. (Kung Fu Panda, Shrek).
Founder/Producer
As one of the co-founders of Unified Pictures, Kurt Rauer offers a wealth of experience and expertise in many aspects of film production.
Through his education in architectural 3D rendering, Kurt Rauer discovered a talent and enthusiasm for digital animation. After several years of success in the architecture industry, Rauer took a partnership in the video game company Frontline in 1994.
At the time, Frontline was creating "Metalwerks," a game well known inside the industry for being beyond the cutting edge of technology of its time. In addition to the technological and creative duties Rauer performed as a digital effects and content creator, he also served Frontline as a line-producer, overseeing budgets and front-end bookkeeping.
Kurt and his team won the 1996 ACM/Siggraph Award for best animated story on Metalwerks. Metalwerks was subsequently acquired by Electronic Arts until, in a rather backhanded appreciation of Rauer's work, congress brought up Metalwerks in hearings regarding potential government censorship of the videogame industry as an example of how gaming technology was becoming immersive enough to be considered dangerous. As part of the video game industry's settlement into self-regulation, Electronic Arts shelved the game permanently.
Rauer went on to work as producer and lead animator for animation company Riveted Studios and then video game publisher Interplay, handling an impressive client base that included Sony, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, and 3DO. Rauer headed teams and provided effects and animation sequences on the high-profile video game adaptation of the extremely popular "Spawn" comics and the cross-platform hit title "Army Men" for Riveted as well as the flagship Star Trek title "Klingon Academy" for Interplay.
In 2000, Kurt was lured from Interplay by the promise of internet science-fiction content and a dot-com startup called Galaxy Online. There, he renewed his collaboration with Frontline co-worker Tim Montijo and met future Unified Pictures co-president Keith Kjarval. At Galaxy, Kurt was given the opportunity to head a think-tank and mini-studio called Galactic Labs.
Soon thereafter, Rauer and Montijo went into business for themselves, founding an animation/digital effects company called ElectroAge Studios. In addition to an ongoing Motorola contract, they performed as digital development artists on a number of high-profile feature films. For their work on the Super Bowl, ElectroAge was nominated and won the coveted Emmy Award.
In 2004, ElectroAge joined with Keith Kjarval to found Unified Pictures, where Rauer holds the title of co-president. Rauer was instrumental in Unified's first acquisition and distribution of Don't Move in 2004 (starring Penelope Cruz) and he helped produce and oversaw the post-production on Unified's first completely developed, produced, and theatrically released feature film, The Perfect Sleep. He continued in these capacities on such Unified productions as Janie Jones (Allesandro Nivola, Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Shue), A Single Shot (Sam Rockwell, Jeffrey Wright, Jason Isaacs), and Rudderless (Billy Crudup, Laurence Fishburne, Selena Gomez). Rudderless – film star William H. Macy's directorial debut – closed out the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Paramount for distribution.
In addition to his other duties, Rauer also leads the Unified Animation Department, helping develop and produce the animated feature The Ark and The Aardvark with director John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, Madagascar) and writer Philip Lazebnik (Mulan, The Prince of Egypt).
By combining years of management and leadership experience with his passion and skill for seemingly all facets of filmmaking, Kurt Rauer is a man in his element at Unified Pictures.
President/Production
As President of Production for Unified Pictures, Ben Ruffman's responsibilities include project analysis, acquisitions, film financing corporate capitalization, and film production. His experience raising tens of millions of dollars for a variety of independent films gives him a unique perspective on the film market and a keen awareness of the financing climate.
Born in London and a native of Brighton, England, Ruffman began his career in 1997 working with commercial clients like video game titan Sega. Following stints at the BBC, ESPN (in Costa Rica), and Columbia Pictures (U.K.), he moved to Los Angeles and joined Unified in the spring of 2004, quickly becoming a minority partner. Furthermore, Ruffman was promoted to partner overseeing the finance and production on Unified's existing library and current slate of films which include Single Shot, Trust Me, Rudderless, The Driftless Area, Dragged Across Concrete, and The Layover.
Ruffman served as an Executive Producer on Unified's features The Driftless Area, Single Shot, Janie Jones, XII, Bob Funk, Dragged Across Concrete, The Layover, and is currently Exec Producing Unified's first animated feature, The Ark and the Aardvark.
Chief Financial officer
While completing her MBA in Corporate Finance at USC’s Marshall School of Business, Lois Ungar began her career in the animation industry as an Executive Director of Finance and Planning with The Walt Disney Company. Over the course of several years, she gained experience in capital budgeting, strategic planning, and financial analysis on both feature films and television.
Ungar left Disney to help a small startup company, which grew into the world-renowned DreamWorks Animation. As an initial hire, she helped build the company’s financial and operational infrastructure while establishing a Home Entertainment division. Ungar’s work led DreamWorks to raise its first billion dollars in capital.
After leaving DreamWorks, Ungar held the position of CFO first at Universal Studios Consumer Products and Interactive Games and then at ThunderPoint Studios. In 2005, Ungar left the animation industry to gain other experiences in Technology and Consumer Product companies. We are happy to announce Ungar’s return to the animation world as Unified’s new CFO.
President - Business Development
Prior to signing on with Unified Pictures in 2004 Steve Goldstein worked for decades behind the scenes establishing constructive business relationships with the major motion picture studios, exhibitors, TV stations and the commercial airline industry. His background also includes working with top personalities and public figures in and out of the entertainment Industry from Johnny Carson to President George H.W. Bush.
Steve assists in building an appealing library of motion picture films that can objectively appeal to the community's understandable changes in tastes and at the same time embracing the importance of value. He feels that this can be achieved by minimizing cost and increasing the contribution of services that historically results in a better than average outcome for our equity partners and then the Company.
Steve attended UCLA and was honorably discharged from the USN in 1967.
Senior VP - Business Development
Olmstead started his industry career at the age of sixteen with his very first job as an usher in a movie theater in Chicago. He knew early on he wanted to learn all aspects of how movies were made and had an even stronger desire to be part of the financial end of the industry, the profit sector.
Two years later he moved to North Hollywood, CA. and immediately embarked on his journey that led him to Unified Pictures. Larry became employed by United Artist Theaters and quickly worked his way up from being an Usher, through the concessions and on his way to become a projectionist and eventually a theater Manager all by the time he was eighteen. He was the youngest theater manager in the chain at that time.
Larry brings a vast array of talents and experience to the team at Unified Pictures. For over twenty years Larry has been a consultant to major motion picture studios and the entertainment industry as a whole.
His relationships with such industry powerhouses as Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, Disney, Viacom, Buena Vista and many other production companies both on the east and west coast has aided in the securing of funding of many of our films.
Larry's background comes in the form of research and targeting markets and people that can contribute to the overall financial strength of any project from beginning to end.
VP - Business Development
As a Producer with Unified Pictures, Kemp has helped raise over 20 million dollars for various projects. Before becoming a crucial member to the Unified team, Kemp was a vital producer and director for NBC's live sport coverage. Kemp directed matches for the Women's Professional Soccer League (WUSA) and NBC's Winter and Summer Gravity Games.
Kemp truly solidified his presence in live sports with his innovative producing techniques for the 2004 and 2006 Olympics. When he spearheaded producing duties on Swimming and Synchronized Swimming at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics these events had a higher viewership than Track & Field.
Before making his presence in live sports, Kemp's company produced films, commercials and music videos for a number of Fortune 500 companies and top record labels.
Senior VP - Business Development
Paul Ruffman has been a resource for motion picture financing since 1989. His first investment was in “Going Overboard”, which made the distributor 50x their investment and was Adam Sandler’s first feature film. It also provided a SAG card for Academy Award Winner Billy Bob Thornton.
From then on and since coming from the UK in 1983 he has arranged funding for over $100 million dollars of investment capital in the Film, Energy, Technology, and Precious Metal industries, along with company startups.
Currently he and his team interact with professional motion picture financiers and individual investors as well as filmmaking creatives both domestically and internationally.
These investors include angel investors, Wall Street civilians, VCs, Family Home Offices, Banking Institutions and the industry insiders at studios, mini-studios and agency packaging. Having a close working relationship with these potential sources of financing has provided necessary clarifying knowledge of production and financing allowing him and his team to perform with integrity and effectively as a bridge between the creative film making process and the capital that is needed.
Paul is married and lives in Malibu, California.
Co-Founder
Nurturing his passion for film making super 8 movies during his childhood, Tim Montijo brings Unified Pictures its most diversified artist and certainly one of the most productive. The days of making films as a child, was the trajectory Montijo advanced to the roles of animator, producer, visual effects supervisor, director, composer and executive for various film and television projects. His range is so broad that he was invited to teach Visual Effect and Animation for UCLA's Entertainment Studies Program. After co- founding the successful digital effects firm Electro Age in 2001, Tim Co-founded Unified Pictures with Kurt Rauer and Keith Kjarval in 2004.
Prior to launching Electro Age, Montijo served tenure at 2 of the most prolific companies, Blur and Rezn8, orchestrating visual effect for multiple television, film, special venue, and video games. In 2000, Montijo earned one of the most prestigious of entertainment award, the EMMY for his work on the Super Bowl XXXIV. He has provided his expertise to major entertainment companies including Disney, FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC, Warner Brothers, IMAX, Discovery Channel, Universal, Hanna Barbara, Lions Gate Films.
In addition to providing award-winning VFX and animation, Montijo is also a seasoned composer. Over the last decade Montijo has scored numerous feature film and television projects.
In recent years, Tim has further branched out to become recognized as an early pioneer in the world of virtual reality and immersive entertainment, producing projects for the likes of Google, Jaunt, Disney, and EDC to name a few. "I'm always looking for fresh and diverse ways to help filmmakers tell a story. To bring the audience into the story like never before. These are exciting times! The future is here, and Unified is on the cutting edge!"
President of Development and Production
Producer Tyler Jackson joined Unified Pictures in 2012 and has served as co-producer on recent Unified films "Rudderless", "The Driftless Area", "Vincent N Roxxy" and "The Layover".
Prior to joining Unified, Tyler traveled the world, created viral videos, produced the IFC series, “Good Morning, Internet!” and was a Rocky Mountain adventure tour guide.
Tyler is from the wilds of Canada and is a 2005 graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts – School of Filmmaking.
Marketing Director
Shaun Clapham comes to a very comprehensive group as a Certified Web Developer/IT with an educational and practical background in computer design. Clapham spearheads all creative design for Unified’s marketing and packaging needs for upcoming films, web design, presentations, packaging, key art, and film review in addition to supporting all technical production needs from post to delivery.
His contribution to the expansion of the company is establishing solid relationships with distribution, clients, and investors. In addition to his creative contribution to film production, he has played an integral role in financial management, planning, forecasting and development. Clapham is the liaison to Executives and CEOs continuing the implementation of cutting-edge technology, providing Unified a distinct advantage in the market share.
His initiation into the entertainment industry began with his work in independent horror films which subsequently led him to work with the Cimarron Group in West Hollywood. With recognition for his designs he built a clientele based in the entertainment field. He caught the eye of Founder/Owner Keith Kjarval who recruited him for Unified Pictures. His expertise and wealth of knowledge about film, filmmakers and talent has proved invaluable in solidifying talent and product relationships. He provides valuable creative input into all projects being considered for Unified.
"Starting a project from nothing and working to make it something, seeing the film process is exciting," states Clapham, "I like working under pressure to create something from nothing."