FEARLESS BY NATURE. INDEPENDENT BY CHOICE.
Azoulay Pictures is an independent production company founded by Alain Azoulay that houses a collective of veteran creative professionals that specialize in the creation of bold, elevated, and fearless storytelling.
Recent projects include "The Redeemer," a proof of concept short film that premiered at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival in 2019 before enjoying a successful film festival run across the nation. Upcoming releases include "Kaishaku," a psychological thriller directed by Harry Locke IV, written by Michael Gerbino, and starring Stefanie Estes (Soft & Quiet), Alyshia Ochse (True Detective, Season 1), and Rob Kirkland (Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown).
Our talented team at Azoulay Pictures drives our success in producing projects that can span all spectrums including film, television, and live theatrical productions.
Alain Azoulay - Founder and Owner of Azoulay Pictures, LLC / Producer
The Managing Director of the Azoulay Film Fund, brings to the table 30+ years
of banking experience. His connections with respected investors spans the globe. From his
birthplace of Casablanca, Morocco, his years of world travel, involvement in various film
festivals, including Cannes Festival de Film, 66th & 67th, Azoulay has expanded his
professional relationships worldwide.
Working with like-minded individuals, Alain is positioned to capitalize on the need for lower
budget quality projects that span a wide genre and can be sold throughout the current
distribution platforms. His professional contacts include international producers, writers,
directors, and actors that he brings together to create and complete projects for this
ever-expanding market. His expertise was pivotal in introducing ‘The Redeemer’ project to
investors and securing the funds for the realization of ‘The Redeemer’ POC and its successful
submission to three Film Festivals in Los Angeles and one in New York City since its completion
in 2019.
Bill Reilly - Film Producer
Bill spent his early years in Yonkers, New York making films with the family Super-8 camera. From there, he dreamed of attending UCLA and becoming a film producer. In the mid 1970s, TV commercials were not yet an art form to which you would aspire...
After attending the UCLA School of Film and Television, Bill joined the visual effects studio Dream Quest Images. At Dream Quest, Bill worked in a variety of capacities, both on the set and on the business side, on many of the studio's high-profile feature and commercial projects, including “The Abyss” and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. As Bill's involvement in Dream Quest's commercial work grew, he played a key role in the studio's opening of a commercial division in 1987.
In 1989 Bill left Dream Quest to become Head of Sales for Lucasfilm Commercial Productions (LCP), the sister company to Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). While there he oversaw all aspects of sales that included jobs that combined live action and visual effects. While at LCP he developed a visual effects seminar that was used as a tool to "demystify the art of visual effects" and he presented his seminar to agencies around the country for the next several years.
By the early 1990s, Bill was using his solid background in production to develop strong creative and business relationships at numerous ad agencies around the country. After leaving Lucasfilm, Bill worked for two live action production houses, Partners USA/Fahrenheit Films and HKM Productions before joining the Palme d'Or winning spot shop Coppos Films in 1997 as an executive producer for Mike Bigelow and the directing team of Marty Canellakis and Brian Aldrich.
During this time, Bill worked on a number of high-profile campaigns, including Super Bowl spots for Pizza Hut that starred Donald Trump, Fran Drescher and big production packages for Dr. Pepper, Lay's, Coke and other major brands. Bill also executive produced a number of projects shot for European agencies and their clients, and was nominated for a Best Commercial Emmy in 1999.
In April 2000, Bill opened up his own company, Space Program. His strong business relationships proved essential in securing top-level assignments from award-winning agencies across the globe. Over the next eleven years he was fortunate to shoot all over the world and collaborate with many talented directors including Two-Time Academy Award Winning Director/Cameraman Janusz Kaminski, Elma Garcia, Mike Bigelow, Kevin Samuels and Mike Shapiro.
In April 2011, Bill joined Curious Pictures, the New York-based animation and stop motion studio and brought his knowledge of live action and mixed media work to the 19-year-old company. He added to the live action part of the company by bringing directors Zach Braff and Scott Duncan with him and subsequently added directors Randy Roberts, Art Streiber, Gotham Chopra and Emmy nominated documentary filmmaker Danny Forster to the roster. Curious projects include SoBe, Target, Starburst, Monster.com
AT&T, Bank of America, DuPont, Head & Shoulders, Metropolitan Opera, Hershey's, Sealy, Purina, New York Times, Head Start, RIF and NBC among others. Oversaw the creation and production of the 2011 Christmas window displays for Coach in the US, Canada, China and Japan.
In 2013 Bill became the Executive Producer of the Hollywood based production company Pictures in a Row. He formally introduced the directing consortium, The Hall, completing notable projects for Staples, Pizza Hut and Verizon. The Hall has entered the advertising community at a time when agencies are looking for content providers and require a creative partner that can provide one-stop production and post-production support. The Hall's created a 49-episode campaign for Verizon's sponsorship of the NFL's Twitter feed that has become part of a case study presentation Bill has been giving to ad agencies around the country. Subsequent campaigns for Disney and Sennheiser have only added to the reputation of The Hall as a go-to production resource within the industry.
Since 2020 Bill has been working in post-production and has worked on projects for Beyoncé, Eminem and Taylor Swift as well as branded spots for Samsung, Popeyes, Jordan, Restoration Hardware and Blue Diamond.
Bill is a member of the DGA, former member of the Academy of Television Arts and Science and former board member of the AICP.
A native New Yorker, Bill lives not far from the UCLA campus in Westwood, where he taught an MFA class in commercial production and directing. An avid golfer and devout runner, he's been known to tackle a marathon or two when not flying back to New York to look for boards.
Harry Locke IV - Director / Producer / Writer
Harry Locke IV is a multi-faceted filmmaker with ten years of industry experience and over 100 on-screen credits that include Academy-Award winners (ICARUS), Sundance breakouts (Tangerine), and popular blockbuster franchises (X-Men, Allegiant). As a digital intermediate colorist, Harry has collaborated closely with celebrated industry talent such as Beyoncé and her creative team at Parkwood Entertainment, actor Pierce Brosnan and his wife Keely Shaye Brosnan on their award-winning documentary Poisoning Paradise, actress Kate Hudson on the launch of her clothing line Happy X Nature, ABC Network for the 30th anniversary of America’s Funniest Home Videos, breakout music artists like Chloë Bailey, Kevin Gates and YBN Cordae, as well as high profile episodic series such as Dream Home Makeover (Netflix) and Real Girlfriends In Paris (Bravo).
As a writer/director, Harry’s feature-length directorial debut, THE CITY OF GOLD (2018), opened at number 17 and 21 in the UK’s VOD and DVD sales, making it the only independent film release to crack the top 25 that year. He is a 2023 WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Finalist and recipient of an “8” on The Black List with his screenplay, SWEETWATER INSURRECTION, a feature length version of his award-winning short, THE REDEEMER. Harry is currently in post-production with his second feature length film, a psychological thriller titled KAISHAKU, which was written by Michael Gerbino and filmed on location in Louisville, Kentucky in 2024. The film stars Stefanie Estes (Soft & Quiet), Alyshia Ochse (True Detective), Rob Kirkland (Mayor of Kingstown), and Robbie Allen (The Redeemer).
Harry is a proud alum of both The Ohio State University (B.A. Public Affairs Journalism and Criminology) and USC School of Cinematic Arts (M.F.A. Film/Television Production).
Matthew Halla - Director of Photography
Matthew Halla is a three-time Emmy award-winning cinematographer from California’s Central Coast. He was awarded an Emerging Cinematographer Award in 2024 from the International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 600. Before receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, he worked as a television photojournalist in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He has shot eight narrative features, three of which were captured on motion picture film.
Renee Schwartz - Film Editor
Renee Schwartz is an editor and filmmaker from Minneapolis, Minnesota, currently residing in Los Angeles. Renee has been a part of a variety of projects, ranging from music videos and narrative films to documentary and experimental films. She has worked with the UNHCR, Universal Music Group, NFL, Nike, TPT, and multiple social-impact nonprofits. A visual artist at heart, Renee aims to tell a story through a variety of visual mediums and is fueled by telling stories of the human experience. Her projects have been selected by multiple festivals around the country. Most notably, the LA Skins Fest, an Indigenous-centered festival where her film on generational trauma in the Annishinaabe community of Minnesota earned her a Best Short Documentary nomination.
Sasha Yelaun - Film Producer
Born in 1984, Sasha Yelaun is a self-made feature film producer and Producers Guild of America Member, with more than a dozen features under his belt. He started out at ABC/Touchstone Television, Paramount Studios, and under the wings of independent producers such as Lewis Chesler and Marty Katz, the former VP of Disney. An alumnus of Brandeis University '07, Sasha began producing during his M.F.A studies at the New York Film Academy winning four awards, and receiving three nominations from film festivals worldwide on the western-short 'A Relative Stranger,' directed by Kane Senes. In 2011, he line produced his first feature film "Benjamin Troubles" written by produced Sundance screenwriter Lee H. Ross ("Downloading Nancy") and directed by A-list location manager Kai Ephron.
In 2014, he produced Half Brothers in Switzerland, his first international production, and was also part of the first string of successful kick-starter campaigns at the time that closed more than six figures on the title Bereave, starring Malcolm McDowell and Jane Seymour. Sasha executive produced "3 Holes And A Smoking Gun" starring Joaquim De Almeida, and James Wilder, which marked his first theatrical release-opening in more than a dozen cities, winning a handful of festival awards, and selling all over the world.
Transitioning from microbudget films to multi-million dollar deals, he executive produced the 2015 Sundance film 10,000 Saints directed by Oscar nominated duo Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman, starring Ethan Hawke, Asa Butterfield, and Hailee Steinfeld and Andy Tenant's Wild Oats starring Demi Moore, Shirley Maclaine, and Jessica Lange. He was also an Executive Producer on Mothers & Daughters, starring the all-ensemble cast of Susan Sarandon, Sharon Stone, Selma Blair, Courtney Cox, Christina Ricci, and co-executive produced Book of Love under Jessica Biel's Production Co starring Jessica Biel, Jason Sudeikis, and Game of Throne's Maisie Williams, which both went theatrical in 2016/2017 respectively. His latest two productions include the heavier budget animated feature film Animal Crackers starring Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Sylvestor Stallone, Danny DeVito, Ian McKellen which premiered in China to a 9.5M in box office revenue, and River Runs Red starring Taye Diggs, George Lopez, Luke Hemsworth, and John Cusack, coming to a 20 city platform theatrical release this fall. Sasha is in development and pre-production with twelve to fifteen titles, and averages three to four films per year.
Sharon Butler
Bio coming soon.
Sharon Butler
Sylvie LaVie - Executive Assistant / Sr. Production Coordinator
Sylvie LaVie brings over 20 years of experience in Executive Administration and Project Management, primarily within the pharmaceutical and high-tech industries. Throughout her career, she has supported CEOs and senior leaders at major pharmaceutical companies, contributing to the success of complex drug development programs and large-scale organizational initiatives. Her strength lies in coordinating multi-layered projects, managing timelines and resources, and keeping teams aligned and focused.
Drawing from her corporate background, Sylvie brought her talents into the entertainment industry, where she served as Senior Project Coordinator for Azoulay Pictures during the production of The Spotter. In this role, she helped guide the executive team, coordinated across remote locations, and kept the production on track by ensuring goals were met and communication flowed smoothly. Her collaborative approach and ability to bring people together were key in helping the project come to life.
Sylvie is passionate about contributing to creative teams and values the opportunity to work alongside talented individuals who share a vision. She’s excited to continue supporting the growth of Azoulay Pictures and looks forward to the stories and magic the studio will share with audiences.
