Automat Pictures is a multi-award winning entertainment production company based in Los Angeles, which specializes in EPK, Blu-ray and DVD Added Value, as well original television programming, web content and independent feature film production.
Founded by President & CEO Jeffrey Schwarz in 2000, Automat has contributed original behind the scenes content on over 100 major studio releases including Footloose, Up in the Air, Sex and the City, 17 Again, Hairspray, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Blue Velvet, Elf, Final Destination, Goodfellas, Philadelphia, Psycho, Resident Evil, Rent, Snakes on a Plane, and many more. The company has worked with directors such as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Sam Mendes, Wes Craven, Rob Reiner, Joe Dante, Barry Sonnenfeld, Paul Verhoeven, John Carpenter, Chris Columbus, Sidney Lumet, and the Coen Brothers. Automat also produced featurettes for the 2010 Academy Awards, supervised by producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman.
Expanding on its home entertainment expertise, Automat Pictures also produces original television programming. Under the HBO First Look banner, the company has contributed episodes profiling such films as Going the Distance, Hairspray, Fracture, Jarhead, and Son of the Mask. For the Starz, Automat created the original documentaries "Sex and the Cinema", "In the Gutter," "Shooting the Police: Cops on Film" and "Hitchcocked!" "Reservoir Dogs Revisited," , a celebration of Quentin Tarantino’s classic, and "Still Swingin'" a retrospective on the indie favorite, were both produced for IFC in 2005. Automat also produced several TV commercial spots for The Sundance Channel featuring comedian Donal Logue.
Automat's first independent feature documentary, Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, about legendary film producer and director William Castle, won the Audience Award at the American Film Institute’s AFI Fest in 2007, and has gone on to win multiple awards around the country. It was released on DVD by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in 2009. 'Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon, produced in 2008, about 70s adult film star Jack Wrangler, was released on DVD by TLA Entertainment and had its national television debut on the LOGO network. Automat’s latest feature is HBO Documentary Films’ "Vito", about the beloved activist and author of The Celluloid Closet, Vito Russo, which will air Summer, 2012. It had its premiere at the prestigious New York Film Festival in October, 2011.
The company is currently in production "I Am Divine," about John Waters' legendary muse Divine, and "Tab Hunter Confidential."