Ellen Schafer

Ellen Schafer is Head of Classic Film Libraries at ARGOS FILMS / CITE FILMS. 

After completing a double major in French and Political Science in the USA, Ellen Schafer worked at ARGOS FILMS. She next worked for two years as the manager of the technical department at PANDORA gaining experience with film materials and post-production management of complex international projects. It was during her time at PANDORA that she discovered the Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC) classic film catalogue and began to work on reviving the lesser-known titles in the collection.

In 1998, she was hired to manage the SNC Paris office, embarking on a two-decade long effort to bring the SNC collection back to the forefront, renewing the underlying authors rights, reinstituting contact with coproduction partners, and tracking down film negatives.

In 2005, SND (Groupe M6) purchased SNC and she began a collaboration with colleagues at SND to create a classic film DVD collection and restore over 100 French and Italian films.

In 2018, she returned to Argos Films as Director of Classic Catalogues to manage ARGOS FILMS and CITE FILMS film libraries, royalty statements and the archiving of thousands of digital and physical film and non-film archives.

In addition to her work on classic film, she also does grant writing and pre-production coordination for CITE FILMS’ co-productions.