Brothers Moshe Edery and Leon Edery, the children of immigrants, came from Morocco (Tangier) at a young age and worked at the local cinema in small town in the south. Their love of cinema paved the way to their success in the local industry culminating in the production of Israel movies and construction of the Cinema City cinema complex.
Company Profile
In the 1970's the brothers Edery began to distribute films and formed United King Films.
The company started its business interests in film distribution broadening their scope and becoming leaders of local distribution, production and marketing of a vast range of entertainment and its related businesses.
The company stands at the forefront of every aspect of the local entertainment industry from feature films to television, home entertainment/DVD, stage performances and a wide range of music productions.
Theatrical Distributor
Moshe Edery and Leon Edery are the largest private investors in Israel cinema, and produced approximately 15 films annually. In cooperation with foreign producers, in recent years, this included the Oscar nominee and winner of the best director at the Berlin Film Festival "Beaufort" by Joseph Cedar, Oscar nominee and winner of the best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival "Footnote" also directed by Joseph Cedar, winner of the Golden Lion for the best film at the Venice film festival "Lebanon" by Shmulik Maoz, "Aviva My Love" by Shemi Zarchin, "Lost Islands" and "Hunting Elephants" by Reshef Levy "Walk on Water" by Eytan Fox, "This is Sodom" by Muli Segev and Adam Sanderson, and "Turn Left at the end of the World" by Avi Nesher, this film was extremely personal to the brothers and represented the closure of their story. As well as they are also invested in the international co-production of films such as "Zaytoun" and
"Playoff" by Eran Riklis.
In the past years United King Films has become a major player in the film distribution of art house and mainstream cinema with an impressive catalog of American, European and Asian films to its name, including Paul Haggis' 2006 Academy Award ® winning CRASH, Roman Polanski's THE PIANIST, Kathryn Bigelow's ZERO DARK THIRTY, Spike Jonze, HER, David O Russell AMERICAN HUSTLE, Martin Scorsese, WOLF OF WALL STREET, Andrew Niccol's LORD OF WAR, George Clooney's GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK and IDES OF MARCH, Hirokazu Koreeda’s NOBODY KNOWS, Lee Daniels' THE BUTLER, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne’s LE GAMIN AU VELO, Benh Zeitlin' BEAST OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, Demien Chazelle's WHIPLASH, to name a few.
Theatrical Exhibitor
In March 2002, Cinema City, the largest cinema megaplex in the Middle East was opened by United King Films together with the French producers, Samuel and Victor Hadida and the local investor Mr. Ya’acov Cohen. Cinema City is a state of the art entertainment center with branches in Ramat Hasharon, Rishon LeZion, Jerusalem, Kefar Saba and 3 more under construction. Each has numerous screens including VIP luxury screening halls and lounges. The complex also services private screenings and conference facilities for business and social events. The company also holds additional movie theaters such as Cinema Park and Cinema Raanan in Raanana and the art-house cinema theater in the Tel Aviv Museum.
Overall, United King Films owns 93 screens to date.
Business Properties
United King Films’ business properties cross the field of entertainment from Cinema City movie megaplex, to being the owner of rights to the biggest catalog of Israeli movies as well as foreign independent titles. To owning 100% of NMC, a music production company and distribution which is also the owner of NMC United, the largest Home Entertainment (DVD) distributor in Israel and the exclusive licensee for a number of the major American studios as well as independent titles, local films and performances and original children’s products.
Latest acquisition under the United King umbrella is "TelAd", which has the franchise to broadcast on satellite and cable TV channels including MGM; E Entertainment channel; Biographical and History Channels; and now also Israeli films channel. "TelAd" also own editing, sound, graphics, and converting studios.
The company has also founded the biggest DVD authoring studio in Israel with editing and sound suites, "DVD Master". To date 400 titles were rejuvenated in their facilities. They have also opened Israel’s first DCP facility for Digital cinema.
In United King Films’ many activities, developing the local entertainment market, reaching the vast audience and enhancing their entertainment pleasure is always at the top of their priorities. The company will continue to invest resources, time, energy and their spirit to stay at the top of the Israeli market.
