Murray Weissman

Murray Weissman has functioned as an independent marketing and public relations executive with his own company since November 1981. Previously he was an officer of the corporation and executive in charge of the motion picture press department of Universal Pictures for l0 years (l966-76). He served as project director in charge of advertising, publicity and promotion on Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and performed major public relations work on six Spielberg films. Earlier he was a press and publicity executive with the ABC and CBS Television networks in Hollywood as well as for Columbia Pictures, Lorimar Productions (now Warner Bros. Television) and TV Guide.

He has participated in the representation of hundreds of motion picture and television projects. His company specializes in Academy Award® and Golden Globe campaigns. Among recent films Weissman has represented are “Crash,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Adam’s Apples” (Denmark’s 2005 entry for the Academy’s Best Foreign Language Film category), “Kill Bill: Vol. II and I” “Finding Neverland,” “The Aviator,” “Fahrenheit 9/ll,” “A Love Song For Bobby Long” and “Beyond The Sea.” Weissman worked with Miramax Films on “The Human Stain,” “Cold Mountain” and “Dirty Pretty Things.”

Motion picture clients of the Weissman office scored a record cumulative 31 nominations in the 2001 Academy Award® competition and won 5. The films represented were for New Line, Miramax and Sony Pictures. They included the films "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" and "I Am Sam" for New Line; "In The Bedroom," "Amelie," "Iris" and "Bridget Jones's Diary" for Miramax; and "Ali" for Sony Pictures. Eleven of the 20 possible acting nominations (for Best Actor/Actress and Best Supporting Actor/Actress) were from the titles represented by Weissman. During the 2002 Academy Awards Year, Weissman’s agency assisted Miramax in winning 40 nominations; nine wins, including six for Best Picture, “Chicago.” “Gangs of New York” won 10 nominations that same year.

Weissman has also strategized campaigns for such films as “The Shipping News,” “Iris,” “Life As A House,” “Malena,” “Chocolat,” “All the Pretty Horses,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Life Is Beautiful,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Shall We Dance,” “Wings of the Dove,” “The English Patient,” “The Cider House Rules,” “Mansfield Park,” “Music of the Heart,” “An Ideal Husband,” “Everyone Says I Love You,” “Ridicule,” “Kolya,” “Sling Blade,” “The Postman,” “Mighty Aphrodite,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Bullets Over Broadway,” “The Piano,” “Red,” “Farewell My Concubine,” “The Crying Game,” “Malcolm X,” “Field of Dreams,” “GoodFellas,” “Hamlet,” “Presumed Innocent,” “Reversal of Fortune,” “Bird,” “Empire of the Sun,” “Secrets & Lies,” “Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead,” “Priest,” “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain,” “Like Water for Chocolate,” “Sirens,” “Queen Margot,” “The Snapper,” “Enchanted April.” Other films represented by Weissman include October Films' “Tous Les Matins du Monde” and “Colonel Chabert,” MGM's “That's Entertainment! III,” Kevin Costner's “Dances With Wolves” (Orion), Paramount's “Wayne's World,” Universal's “Army of Darkness,” “The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal,” “The Puppetoon Mask,” Goldwyn's “Rock-A-Doodle,” the documentaries “Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “Paris Is Burning,” “ Superstar! The Life and Times of Andy Warhol,” the Oscar-winning “American Dream,” “Anima Mundi” and Annabelle Gurwitch’s 2006 documentary, “Fired!”

Weissman has represented such diversified entertainment entities as Warner Bros Pictures, DreamWorks, Sony Entertainment, Lionsgate Films, Paramount Pictures, MGM/UA, Columbia Pictures, NBC Productions, Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video, the Writers Guild of America, TriStar, Trimark Pictures, New Line Cinema, New World Entertainment, and Pacific Theaters. The company supervised public relations for six years of the "People's Choice Awards," two years of the "Cable ACE Awards," four years of the American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards, two years of the Angelus Awards, and the Interactive Achievement Awards presented by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, as well as the Art Directors Guild Awards and the Costume Designers Guild Awards.

Among the TV shows repped by Weissman have been “Good News,” “Murder in Mississippi,” “Curacao,” “Shadow Hunter,” “Tosca,” “Goodwill Games,” “Jack Reed, An Honest Cop” and others. He has previously represented Oscar® winners Walter Matthau and James Coburn.

In addition, Weissman has represented many production entities, organizations and creative talent, such as Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists, Phil Roman Entertainment, Meier Worldwide Intermedia, Westwood Studios, Neufeld/Rehme, Jones Entertainment Group (a division of Jones Intercable, Inc.), Don Mischer Productions, The Matthau Company, Stereo Vision Entertainment, Norman Rosemont Productions, The Harvey Entertainment Company, Coming Home Entertainment Group, FilmColony, Calliope Films, and Alterian Studios. He has also worked on a variety of projects for such companies as the American Film Marketing Association, the Video Software Dealers Association, Interfilm Technologies, the postproduction companies Cinema Research Corporation, Soundtrax Studios, and AME; and the 40th Annual WGA Awards as well as the WGA's American-Soviet Screenwriters Festival. The company has also provided unit publicity services for numerous films, including those for Paramount and Universal. In addition, the company continues to work with individual actors, producers, writers.  directors and authors.

Recently he has been working with the Art Directors Guild, the Costume Designers Guild, the International Jazz Spectacular, Profiles In History, ESPN and HATCHfest.

 Weissman previously served as vice-president of advertising, publicity and promotion for Lorimar Productions and as vice president, publicity and promotion at Universal. He supervised the motion picture public relations campaigns for “Time Bandits,” “Jaws,” “The Sting,” “American Graffiti,” “Airport,” “Earthquake,” “Kramer vs. Kramer” and more than 200 other major theatrical motion pictures. During Weissman's time as a network executive with ABC and CBS, he supervised publicity and promotion campaigns on 58 TV series and l09 specials. He and his company have promoted the following DVDs and VHS home videos: “Expo: Magic of the White City,” “Lincoln and Lee at Antietam,” “Jazz,” “Superman,” “Left Behind” and “Judgment.”

For 14 years until the end of 1997 his company represented the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in all areas of public relations. This included handling the Academy's Primetime and Daytime Emmy Awards, the Television Academy Hall of Fame and all activities of the Academy.

Weissman is an active member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He is a graduate of The School of Journalism, University of Southern
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

[ Filmography ]

Executive Vice President, Rick Markovitz has worked in executive-level positions with global advertising agencies, major entertainment companies, as well as leading technology-based firms for more than 25 years. Having started in the movie business as a fieldman for Columbia Pictures before jumping into the online world, Rick offers clients innovation combined with showmanship.  Rick’s role at MWA is to help integrate overall communications programs with traditional and online channels.
His ad agency experience includes BBDO Worldwide where Rick served as the General Manager of BBDO Interactive and led a team pioneering new media initiatives with such clients as Fox Motion Pictures, MGM, BestFoods, VISA, Pepsi, GE, and the US Navy, among others. Prior to BBDO, Rick’s other agency experience includes J. Walter Thompson where he directed the Entertainment Group, and Grey Advertising, working on the Warner Bros account in New York. Rick most recently served as Senior Vice President with OTX Research, one of the leading providers of online-based insight for entertainment and consumer brands to develop new client partnerships and services.

A graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, CN, Rick is also a member of the Public Relations Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Leonard Morpurgo, vice president of Murray Weissman & Associates, has worked in all facets of motion picture publicity. He was previously international vice president of Rogers & Cowan Public Relations, head of international marketing for Universal Studios and held similar positions at CBS Theatrical Films and Lorimar Pictures. Before coming to the United States he was director of European publicity and promotion for Columbia Pictures. He started out in the industry as publicity director at Rank Film Distributors in the U.K.

He is much called upon as a publicity writer and has edited the Publicists Directory for the past ten years. As such he is known as the publicists’ publicist.

Morpurgo is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, sits on the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Committee and is fluent in a number of languages. He is also a member of BAFTA/LA.

[ Filmography ]