Indie distributor Kino Lorber has hired Kate Patterson as its new Director of Press & Publicity. She joins from Metrograph, where she headed publicity and communications.
Patterson will lead multi-pronged PR efforts to support Kino Lorber’s continued growth in the digital space and manage campaigns for its 25+ yearly theatrical releases. She reports jointly to Wendy Lidell, SVP of Theatrical Distribution & Acquisitions, and Nicholas Kemp, recently promoted to VP of Marketing & Communications. She’ll work directly with Richard Lorber, president and CEO, on special projects.
Before Metrograph, Patterson worked as a publicist at Film at Lincoln Center, where she promoted repertory programming and secured institutional press for the organization, including publicity efforts surrounding Film at Lincoln Center’s rebrand. She managed publicity for the New York Film Festival, New Directors/New Films and year-round FLC events.
Previously she worked in agency publicity at Brigade Marketing and held positions at Cinedigm and Fork Films. Outside of publicity, she was associate producer of the documentary This Time Next Year and the docu-fiction Feast of the Epiphany.
Kino Lorber releases about 30 films a year theatrically under its Kino Lorber, Kino Repertory and Alive Mind Cinema banners. It brings over 350 titles annually to the home entertainment and educational markets, and handles releases in ancillary media for Zeitgeist Films, Milestone Films, Cohen Media Group, Greenwich Entertainment, Artsploitation, Palisades Tartan, Menemsha Films and Raro Video, including wholesale, retail and direct-to-consumer channels and direct digital distribution through over 40 OTT services.
In 2019, the company launched arthouse digital channel Kino Now which features over 1,300 titles from its library. In 2021, it started Kino Cult, an AVOD channel for new and rare genre films. It has a library of over 4,00 titles and seven Oscar nominations.
During a tough time for arthouse cinemas, which have struggled to win back their core older audiences, Kino Lorber was honored with a Special Award from the New York Film Critics Circle for pioneering “virtual cinema releases of art house films with revenue shares that allow audiences to support almost 500 local independent theaters.