Music Box Films Co-Founder Edward Arentz Steps Down

Music Box Films managing director Edward Arentz is leaving the company he co-founded with William Schopf in 2007. Arentz oversaw acquisition, marketing and distribution at the arthouse distributor, which has released nearly 100 titles and earned seven Academy Award nominations. One of the company’s most recent hits, the Swedish comedy “A Man Called Ove,” was the highest-grossing foreign-language movie of the year, taking in $3.3. million, and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

READ MORE: How ‘A Man Called Ove’ Became a Sleeper For the Best Foreign Film Oscar

Some of the company’s other standout titles include 2008’s “Tell No One,” based on Harlen Coben’s bestseller; the original Swedish version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” starring Noomi Rapace; Terence Davies’s “The Deep Blue Sea,” starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston; Pawel Pawlikowski’s Foreign Language Oscar-winning “Ida,” and the Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary “Meru.”

Arentz said in a statement that he is leaving to pursue “new creative challenges” after a “wonderful run” at Music Box. “We’ve had great success identifying and championing highly accomplished yet undervalued films, returned significant overages to our licensors and I had the pleasure of working with a host of talented filmmakers and performers,” he said.

READ MORE: Music Box Films Picks Up North American Rights for Swedish Smash ‘A Man Called Ove’

Schopf, president of Music Box, added, “It has been a pleasure working with Ed, and we at Music Box wish him the best in the next phase of his professional life.”

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