Josh Kramer, a film producer, financier and Amazon executive, died on 27 November in Santa Monica, California. He was 67.
Kramer began his entertainment career in foreign sales for Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis. He became an integral part of the company, pre-selling foreign film rights and financing films such as Manhunter and Blue Velvet. He led the acquisition of the rights to Madonna’s first concert film, Madonna: Truth or Dare, and later sold the film overseas.
Rachael Horovitz, who worked with him at De Laurentiis, remembered Kramer on his memorial page. “A concert pianist who helped right the Beastie Boys tour bus one night in Paris when angry fans overturned it; a patient negotiator who cried while reading J.D. Salinger. His contradictions made him.
In the early ’90s, he teamed up with Thom Mount to form the Mount/Kramer Company, which produced Roman Polanski’s Death and the Maiden and Sidney Lumet’s Night Falls on Manhattan. Kramer then became head of distribution for Capitol Films, joined MGM’s international acquisitions department and assisted artist and engineer Chuck Hoberman with various inventions.
Following these activities, Kramer began his career at Amazon as the first licensing expert for Amazon Unbox. By establishing Amazon’s relationships with Hollywood studios and TV networks, he helped build a comprehensive selection for Amazon’s new video platform. Kramer and his team also helped expand Amazon Video through deals with TiVo, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Vizio, Roku and others.
As head of film business operations at Amazon Studios from 2014 to 2018, Kramer wrote the original business plan for the film division, recruited leadership and developed distribution strategies for films such as Spike Lee’s ‘Chiraq’, ‘Manchester By the Sea’ and ‘The Big Sick’.
Kramer also founded BKopy.io in 2021, where he focused on the intersection of creative artistry and blockchain technology. As the driving force behind BKopy.io, he launched Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash NFT at Sotheby’s in early 2023. Kramer also served as managing partner of Resonance Content, where his clients included The Boston Globe, K Period Media and The Wildcard Alliance.
He grew up in Teaneck, N.J., graduated from Brown University and earned an MBA from Wharton. In addition to his success in business, his family and friends remember him as an accomplished classical pianist, a published short story writer, a potter, a knitter and a self-taught computer whiz.
