Biography
Sidney Kimmel is Chairman and CEO of Sidney Kimmel Entertainment (SKE), the Los Angeles-based motion picture financing and production company.
Active in the motion picture industry for more than 30 years, Mr. Kimmel's passion as an independent producer throughout the 1980s and 1990s eventually led to the founding of SKE in October 2004. The company develops, finances, and produces three to five features per year, working with esteemed filmmaking talent to create quality commercial films.
Mr. Kimmel and SKE have co-financed and produced or co-produced over three dozen motion pictures since the company's inception. Mr. Kimmel recently executive-produced Bennett Miller's Moneyball, nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture; produced Brad Furman's hit The Lincoln Lawyer, starring Matthew McConaughey; and produced this winter's Stand Up Guys, directed by Academy Award winner Fisher Stevens and starring Academy Award winners Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Alan Arkin; and Parker, directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez.
Among his other films as producer are Lars and the Real Girl, his first film with actor Ryan Gosling, directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Academy Award nominee Nancy Oliver; Kasi Lemmons' Talk to Me, his first film with Focus Features, starring Don Cheadle and Spirit Award winner Chiwetel Ejiofor; Greg Mottola's acclaimed Adventureland, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, co-financed and co-produced with Miramax; Synecdoche, New York, the directorial debut of Academy Award-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman; and both the 2007 and 2010 versions of Death at a Funeral, directed by Frank Oz and Neil LaBute, respectively. Mr. Kimmel was executive producer of Marc Forster's The Kite Runner, based on Khaled Hosseini's acclaimed novel of the same name.
Mr. Kimmel and SKE, in association with Universal Pictures, financed Academy Award nominee Paul Greengrass' critically acclaimed United 93, as well as executive-produced Billy Ray's Breach, starring Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, and Laura Linney. Universal also released Nick Cassavetes' controversial Alpha Dog, starring Emile Hirsch, Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, and Justin Timberlake, which Mr. Kimmel produced and financed.
Prior to his success in filmed entertainment, Mr. Kimmel founded Jones Apparel Group in 1975, which has since grown into a $4.5 billion diversified fashion industry empire. He also founded the Sidney Kimmel Foundation and its subsidiary, the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research, which is one of the nation's largest individual donors to cancer research. He is extremely involved in philanthropic endeavors benefiting his hometown of Philadelphia as well as Jewish education and continuity. He oversaw the opening of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, home of the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra. He is also a partner in Cipriani International, the acclaimed international restaurant and catering establishment, and is a part owner of The Miami Heat.