Publicist Adam Kersh has left Brigade Marketing, the marketing firm he co-founded in 2010. Kersh headed up the traditional publicity division and will continue to work on a freelance basis with many of the filmmakers for whom he spearheaded campaigns in the past, including Mark and Jay Duplass, Lynn Shelton, and Sean Baker.
No successor has been announced at the company, but co-founder Tom Cunha will continue to oversee the digital marketing division along with the publicity side of the firm for the foreseeable future.
“I am moving in a new direction professionally,” Kersh wrote to industry peers in an email today, but declined to offer further details on his next moves. Other sources confirmed that he would continue to work with his roster of clients at the SXSW Film Festival this year while exploring new opportunities beyond publicity.
“Since Brigade’s founding, Adam has played an instrumental role in Brigade’s growth and success,” Cunha said in a statement. “Adam is leaving Brigade to focus on other opportunities and we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.”
Kersh previously worked in the publicity divisions at Lionsgate and 42 West. At Brigade, he found much success launching low-budget films on the festival circuit and in theatrical release. This includes Baker’s 2015 Sundance hit “Tangerine,” which was acquired by Magnolia and later became one of the first movies about a trans character to receive a major Oscar campaign.
After representing Craig Zobel’s “Compliance” at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Kersh signed Ann Dowd as a client and worked on her successful Emmy campaign for “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Kersh’s other major film campaigns include Shelton’s “Your Sister’s Sister,” David Robert Mitchell’s “It Follows,” Alex Ross Perry’s “Listen Up Philip,” last year’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner “The Miseducation of Cameron Post “ and the breakout of the festival’s NEXT section, “Madeline’s Madeline,” on which he served as an associated producer. He was also executive producer on 2016 horror sensation “The Eyes of My Mother.”
Nicolas Pesce’s “The Eyes of My Mother”
Kersh represented Baker on the awards circuit for “The Florida Project,” and has worked with the Duplass brothers on all of their recent efforts including feature films, television, and a recent book project. On the documentary side, he worked on the 2018 Oscar campaign for the Syrian nominee “Last Men in Aleppo,” among others.
Kersh will attend the SXSW Film Festival as a representative for Shelton on her new film “Sword of Trust” and longtime client Amy Seimetz, who stars in Paramount-produced closing night entry “Pet Sematary.”