Ovidio G. Assonitis

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Ovidio Assonitis was born on January 18, 1943 in Alexandria, Egypt is an independent film producer and businessman with over 35 years of experience in the Entertainment Industry. Catering to the South East Asia market, Assonitis began an extensive distribution network company in the mid-1960's and in the 10-year period distributed more than 900 films from offices in Thailand, Honk Kong, Singapore, Philippines, and Indonesia. His former partners and associates include HRH Prince Anusom Yukol in Thailand (brother of the King of Thailand), John Litton in the Philippines (President of Mever films, Theater owner and former President of the Philippines Film Festival), the Shaw Brothers in Singapore, Alex Tedja In Indonesia, Kong Cho Yee (Edko Enterprises) in Hong Kong. From the 1970s to 2000s Assonitis has financed and produced some 53 films. Many of these were joint ventures with American International Pictures (USA), Nippon Herald Films Inc and Toho-Towa (Japan), with worldwide releases through Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Warner Brothers and United Artists. The 1974 horror classic Beyond the Door distributed by Film Ventures International grossed worldwide in excess of USD $40 million, a tremendous achievement at that time. In 1980 Mr Assonitis produced Piranha II - The Spawning, which was released through Warner brothers and Columbia pictures. This was the movie that launched the career of director James Cameron, who went on to direct the Terminator, Aliens, Terminator II - Judgement Day, True Lies and the blockbuster hit Titanic. In 1989 Assonitis became the second major stockholder chairman and CEO of Cannon Pictures Inc (USA). In 1990 Assonitis assigned to Universal Pictures the remake of the European classic Scent of a Woman, which was released worldwide in 1993, starring Al Pacino and directed by Martin Brest. Since his resignation as CEO of Cannon Inc, Assonitis has produced 6 movies, became President of Titan Inc (USA), Titan Serendib Inc (Malaysia and Sri Lanka), Ka Film Investment (KFI) (Rome) and stockholder of Buskin film (Rome). Aside from the Entertainment Industry, Assonitis has several major commercial projects in South East Asia, including Malaysia. He is a keen philanthropist and eager to combine business with a positive development of the economic and social infrastructure of countries in Asia.