Vin Roberti, Chairman of Palisades Media Corp., announced today that veteran industry executive, Soumya Sriraman, has been named President and CEO of Palisades Tartan US and UK. This is big news as the company is hoping to revive the Tartan brand that treated us genre fans so good in the past (Oldboy, Marebito, many others). More inside.

“Soumya’s executive background with the studios and entrepreneurial spirit coupled with her fresh perspective and keen insights make her an ideal fit for our growing company,” stated Roberti. “We are looking forward to her immediate contributions.”

Sriraman added, “Vin’s track record of success with Palisades is reflected in the amazing catalog and team he has built. I am a huge fan of the Tartan catalog and plan to aggressively rebuild the brand and introduce US audiences to a new collection of cutting-edge and remarkable films.”

Palisades Tartan has emerged as one of the premier distributors of independent and arthouse cinema in the US and UK and has been on the forefront of consumer trends. Straddling both continents, their film line-up boasts an impressive repertoire in the UK including the Ingmar Bergman library, Takashi Miike’s AUDITION, horror phenom THE RING and INFERNAL AFFAIRS, which was successfully remade in the US and titled THE DEPARTED. Apart from many favorites such as Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs and Carlos Reygadas’s Silent Light, the US library is anchored by Park Chan-wook’s Cannes jury prize winner, OLDBOY, the film that famously introduced the Western World to the Asia Extreme brand.

Roberti and Sriraman added that they planned to aggressively build the Palisades Tartan brand in the US and UK territories with new strategic acquisitions and mergers over the coming year. Sriraman remarked that despite shrinking shelf space, newer delivery mechanisms including digital represented a significant opportunity offering consumers many viewing modes to whet their appetite for independent films.

Sriraman entered into an undisclosed multi-year contract with the company and will be relocating to New York from Los Angeles. She will immediately begin representing the company at the major film markets worldwide and aggressively source new partnerships.

Most recently, Sriraman was Senior Vice President at Universal Music and Video Distribution