LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 2, 2024--
Curzon today announces the appointment of Philip Knatchbull as Interim Executive Chairman.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241202236821/en/
“I’m very excited about the next stage of the Curzon journey and am looking forward to reuniting with so many of my colleagues in this new role,” said Philip Knatchbull. “I spent almost 18 years building Curzon to be the hugely respected brand it is now. I trust the team I assembled, and know the company and the industry incredibly well. I return during a pivotal moment for the industry with full confidence in Curzon’s ability to be a strategic and cultural leader."
“Leadership is deeply rooted in Curzon’s history – from being one of the first cinema companies to import European and world cinema in the 1930s, to being among the first global film companies to identify the growing influence of streaming platforms and new production studios. During my tenure as CEO, we forged relationships with many of the industry’s then-new entrants, many of whom have continued to grow their impact on every part of the industry. Together with our long-standing relationships with established studios and distributors, these relationships are a testament to Curzon’s enduring quality in-cinema experience, and our trusted curatorial voice, across development, production, distribution, exhibition and streaming. With this in mind, I can confidently say that Curzon continues to be hugely influential in the film world. I believe the company has the potential to grow that influence significantly over the coming months and years.”
Philip Knatchbull was CEO of Curzon from May 2006 to November 2023. During his tenure, the company grew from a few locations into a national cinema company with film exhibition, distribution, production, and on-demand streaming services.
In November 2024, Fortress Investment Group announced that funds managed by its affiliates had acquired Curzon, making it an independent UK-based company.
The company operates Curzon Cinemas – with 16 cinemas and 46 total screens across the UK – as well as film distributor Curzon Film, and the Curzon Home Cinema streaming service.
Curzon’s pioneering membership programme integrates cinema and streaming, allowing members to use credits against Curzon Cinema visits or watching films on Curzon Home Cinema. The premium Cult membership tier includes seven tickets a week, discounts across food and beverage and more. Curzon members receive priority booking for events, and personalised recommendations based on their film taste. In the past year Curzon has collaborated with Kia, Beronia and Butchers on integrated partnerships that enhance the cinema experience with offerings that include wine tasting screenings, in-person Q&As, and repertory film screenings.
Curzon’s curatorial approach extends to editorial forums and communications, with monthly and weekly newsletters, an online and biannual printed journal, and online video content series ‘Conversations at Curzon’. Curzon has a longstanding relationship with Netflix to exhibit the best of their films in their cinemas.
Curzon Film, which in 2020 set a new UK foreign-language box office record with Parasite (over £12 million at the UK and Irish box-office), has had notable successes in the past year, including:
Curzon Film has released more Cannes Palme d’Or winners than any other UK distributor and has distributed multiple Academy Awards and BAFTA winners, including Best Picture winner Parasite. In 2017, Curzon received a BAFTA in recognition of its Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema.
Curzon Film’s forthcoming slate includes Flow( release date: 21 March 2025)and Julie Keeps Quiet (release date: 7 March 2025) - critically acclaimed hits which have been selected to represent Latvia and Belgium respectively at the Oscars.
Additionally, Curzon is partnering with Amazon MGM on the theatrical release of three of their forthcoming titles:
Curzon has opened new cinema locations in the past several years, including Hoxton, Camden, Kingston-upon-Thames (which features a rooftop bar with panoramic views of the historic riverside town) and Canterbury. Today, Curzon has destination venues across London and around the UK.
About Curzon
Curzon is a multifaceted film company covering exhibition, distribution, production, and on-demand streaming. The company currently operates 16 cinemas across the UK. The distribution business, encompassing Curzon Film and specialist label Artificial Eye, has nearly 50 years of experience in independent film, with a library of critically acclaimed films by some of the world’s greatest directors including Wim Wenders, Michael Haneke, Bong Joon Ho Alice Rohrwacher, and Ruben Östlund. Streaming service Curzon Home Cinema is available to customers through TV, mobile apps, and over-the-top platforms. For more information please visit www.curzon.com.
Philip Knatchbull, Interim Executive Chairman of Curzon (Photo: Business Wire)
A man who gave his son the gun he used to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison.
Colin Gray’s sentencing comes days after his son, Colt Gray, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school 45 miles (70 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray, 16, had pleaded guilty to murder and other charges.
Judge Nicholas Primm, who also sentenced Colt Gray, was blunt in addressing the elder Gray: “It is clear you failed as a parent.” But he said punishing crimes of negligence is particularly difficult because there was no intent to commit a crime.
“My heart aches for everyone that was there that day, for all of you that have been impacted by it. But the law requires that I set aside emotion. I don’t get to sentence with passion. I have the nearly impossible task of sentencing you without passion despite the immeasurable heartache that you caused,” Primm said.
Gray, 55, is one of a handful of American parents who have been criminally charged after their children were accused in shootings.
A jury in March found Colin Gray guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Georgia law defines second-degree murder as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children. Gray was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killings of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.
Another teacher and eight other students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.
Family members of those who died and victims of the shooting, many of whom also spoke during Colt Gray's sentencing, condemned what they said were Colin Gray's failures as a parent and urged the judge to give him the maximum sentence.
“This wasn’t unavoidable. This was preventable. Because of the choices made inside the Gray household, four families were handed life sentences of grief,” said Breanna Schermerhorn, whose son was killed.
“He did not pull the trigger but purchased and left a firearm accessible to a minor," said Shayna Aspinwall, whose husband was killed. She said the sentence must take into account "the families left behind who must carry the grief and trauma for the rest of our lives.”
The judge addressed those in the courtroom after announcing the sentence: “This only closes the legal chapter for this horror. The pain, the heartache, they continue. I understand that. I hope all of you know this community loves you, and I ask that God gives you peace.”
Prosecutors said Colin Gray gave his son the rifle as a Christmas gift along with ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories.
An investigator testified that Colt Gray carried the semiautomatic rifle onto the school bus with the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board. The teenager left his second-period class and went to a bathroom, emerged with the rifle and shot people in the hallway and a classroom, the investigator said.
Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, had shown signs of deteriorating mental health in the weeks leading up to the killings, according to testimony. He belonged to a “true crime community” online where he and other young people discussed their obsession with mass shooters, an investigator testified.
The teen's mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators she had argued with her estranged husband weeks before the shooting, asking him to secure his guns and restrict their son's access.
Defense attorney Brian Hobbs asked the judge for a sentence of 10 years in prison followed by 10 years on probation. Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said Gray deserved a sentence of 80 years in prison.
Hobbs argued that Colt Gray “actively hid the depth of his involvement” in the online community obsessed with mass shooters, and the red flags enumerated by prosecutors were outliers among happier moments.
Smith countered that Colin Gray ignored “a substantial and unjustifiable risk."
“This was the risk that he was ignoring, that there would be a mass shooting of children at a school, and he gave his son the exact tool he would need to accomplish this," Smith said.
Prosecutors have in recent years held parents responsible when they believe they can prove a parent contributed to a killing.
Jennifer and James Crumbley were the first U.S. parents to face such charges after their son, Ethan, killed four students and wounded others at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021. Like Colin Gray, they were unaware of their son’s plans but had gifted him a gun before the shooting. They are serving 10-year prison terms for involuntary manslaughter. Hobbs, the defense attorney, urged the judge to use that sentence as a guide.
The judge called these cases “divisive.” There would have been no crime by the father if the son hadn't brought a gun to school and shot people, he noted. But he said Colin Gray could have locked up the guns, kept ammunition out of the house, had someone else keep the guns and gotten his son counseling.
“You were convicted because the warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter and you didn’t get him help and you didn’t remove his access to the guns,” Primm said.
This story has been corrected to show the school is called Apalachee High School, not Appalachee.
District Attorney Brad Smith speaks in front of Judge Nicholas Primm during the sentencing hearing of Colin Gray, father of Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, at Barrow County Superior Court on Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Colin Gray, father of the Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, enters the courtroom during his sentencing hearing at Barrow County Superior Court on Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Colin Gray, father of the Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, is handcuffed following his sentencing during his sentencing hearing at Barrow County Superior Court on Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Colin Gray, father of the Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, reacts as he sits with his attorneys during his sentencing hearing at Barrow County Superior Court on Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Colin Gray, father of the Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, sits with his attorneys during his sentencing hearing at Barrow County Superior Court on Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Colt Gray, the 16-year-old Apalachee High School shooting suspect, is led in by deputies for his sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court, Monday, July 27, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Colt Gray, the 16-year-old convicted in the Apalachee High School shooting, stands to be handcuffed following his sentencing at Barrow County Superior Court in Winder, Ga., on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
FILE - Colin Gray, the father of Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray, arrives to the courtroom at the Barrow County courthouse, Dec. 18, 2025, in Winder, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)
