Oliver Huzly

Born in Stuttgart in the south of Germany and graduating from school there, I went to university in Berlin and Munich and started working on assorted film and music projects even then – doing everything from writing press booklets to dodging missiles as an extra. At some time I also started to write about film, music and literature for some magazines which in turn lead to me becoming a translator and commissioning editor for a big publishing house, Ullstein-Springer, first free lance and then fulltime up to 1991. At the time I also started to work as an acquisitions and rights scout for several film distribution and production companies, such as Senator. From 1991 to 1994 I then went on to work at Senator where I worked on the acquisition of certain underlying rights (such as AIMEE&JAGUAR) and also chaperoned some of their international participations and acquisitions (such as SHORT CUTS, ONCE WERE WARRIORS and BACKBEAT). I also continued to work for other companies and publishing houses, translating, amongst others, books by Terry McMillan and James Lee Burke. In 1994 I then joined Volker Schlöndorff and Reinhard Klooss at Studio Babelsberg to work as a story editor, consulting producer, production executive and head of development, moving on to Munich’s Bavaria studios to handle rights acquisition and work as a studio executive and producer. From 1999 up to 2004 I was one of the heads of the film division at Odeon Film AG and Odeon Pictures, where I was a producer or production executive on films such as THE FAMILY JEWELS, BUFFALO SOLDIERS and MORTEL TRANSFERT. I also coordinated Odeon’s distribution activities, releasing LA PIANISTE in Germany in a joint venture with Concorde. From 2004 onward I got engaged in the writing and producing of several CGI animated features for Bavaria and Constantin. Those films were released all over the world and we continue work on the franchises. In 2011 I also started my own company, Baby Blue Pictures. Based in Berlin, the first project was a coproduction with ARTE and WDR, the Egyptian movie CAIRO EXIT which played the Tribeca, Dubai and Munich festivals (and many more) and won several awards. Next came the documentary REPORTING…A REVOLUTION which was a Berlin festival special in 2012. I have currently a further Egyptian collaboration, THE COST OF LIVING, in post-production and am preparing a Libanese coproduction for 2015. Next to this there are numerous projects in development or financing stages; I also consult on many international projects, mostly in matters of financing and development, retain close ties to almost all the companies and people I ever worked with (if they’re still around) and continue to live in Berlin, Munich and Paris.