About
Facing East is an Asian, European and US based next generation global financing and production company.
Founded in 2016 by Philip Lee and Markus Barmettler, executive producers of The Revenant, Assassin's Creed, and The Captain, Facing East has offices in Singapore, Los Angeles, Dublin, London, and Zurich.
Offices
Philip Lee
CO-CEO
Philip Lee is a film producer and financier. He has been involved in dozens of critically acclaimed and box-office hit films, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Cloud Atlas, Hero and The Revenant. Throughout his career, he has worked to close the gap between US and Chinese filmmaking, from serving as a local line producer for Hollywood films in China to creative producing and financing of US-China Co-Productions.
Markus Barmettler
CO-CEO
Markus Barmettler is a film producer, financier, and entertainment attorney. Together with his business partner, Philip Lee, Barmettler he has worked for years to build bridges between the Eastern and Western film industries. Barmettler has been behind the financing of more than 25 major motion pictures over the last 20 years, including The Revenant, which won 3 Oscars and 5 Bafta awards.
Richard Sankey
President
Richard Sankey is President of Facing East Los Angeles and will be leading Marketing, PR and Distribution of Facing East’s upcoming slate. His prior jobs have helped engage millions of consumers for a long list of clients including, Netflix, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, A24, Fox Searchlight, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Amazon Studios and many others.
Prior to joining Facing East Richard worked with one of the industry’s leading film entertainment marketing agencies, BLT Communications, where he served for the past four years as Co-President of BLT+
Grant Cupido
CFO
Grant Cupido has amassed a wealth of experience in various Financial Management and Reporting roles, having worked internationally in a vast variety of industries in the United Kingdom, South Africa and more recently Switzerland. Grant obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Finance at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and is also a member of the Certified Institute of Management Accountants.
Prior to joining Facing East Grant worked for a British Corporate Intelligence company for 5 years where he reported to the executive commitee and was responsible for the group’s South African financial operations.