In March 1995, Nathanaël Karmitz founded NADA, a company producing short films and cultural events. He joined mk2 in 1997 to develop its film-related activities, particularly the mk2 Project Café specializing in video art, and launched the affiliate mk2 éditions in 2000. In 2001, he created the mk2 record label. Between 2000 and 2003, he was part of the team designing the mk2 Bibliothèque complex, which opened on 19 February 2003. In 2004, he became head of the group’s ‘content’ unit, which brings together film production, cinema distribution, international sales and publishing. He was appointed mk2’s CEO in October 2005 (now Chairman of the Board).
Since then, Nathanaël Karmitz produced and coproduced numerous films including 13 Tzameti by the young Georgian talent Gela Babluani (Lion of the Future at Venice 2005, Jury Prize at Sundance 2006 and European Discovery at the European Film Awards 2006), Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park (60th Anniversary Award in Cannes 2006), Olivier Assayas’s Something in the Air and Summer Hours (voted Best Foreign Film by the critics in Boston, New York and Los Angeles in 2009), Abbas Kiarostami’s Like Someone In Love and Certified Copy with Juliette Binoche (Best Actress Award at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival), Abdellatif Kechiche’s Black Venus, Walter Salles’s On the Road, Jia Zhang-Ke’s Mountains May Depart and Xavier Dolan’s Laurence Anyways, Tom At The Farm, Mommy and It’s Only the End of the World (Grand Prix, Cannes 2016, Best director, César 2017), Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War (2017), Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World (2021) (Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021, Lumière for Best International Co-Production in 2022, Goya Award for Best European Film in 2023), Simple comme Sylvain by Monia Chokri (2023) (Grand Prix du Jury and Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cabourg Film Festival), and Room 999 by Lubna Playoust (2023).
He distributed around fifty films in France including Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know (Golden Camera in Cannes 2005), Steve McQueen’s Hunger (Golden Camera in Cannes 2008), Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank (Jury Prize in Cannes 2009), Serge Bromberg’s Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno (Best Documentary César 2010), Steve McQueen’s Shame (Best Actor Award in Venice 2011) and many others.
First operator in Paris to announce plans to digitize the entire cinema network, Nathanaël Karmitz has always been a pioneer in the 3D and digital revolution, distributing the first film purposefully designed for digital 3D, Ben Stassen’s Fly Me to the Moon, in France.
In June 2014, he acquired CINESUR, the biggest cinema chain in southern Spain and leading network in Andalusia. In 2017, he acquired mk2 Palacio de Hielo, the most important cinema in Madrid, and made mk2 the 3rd largest cinema operator in Spain.
In 2016, Nathanael and Elisha Karmitz created mk2 VR, the first permanent venue dedicated to virtual reality in Europe. With the development of the mk2 VR Pods – VR solutions for professionals, along with the management and distribution of a content catalogue, mk2 became a key player in immersive technologies. mk2 and its agency MK2+ created PSG Expérience, a fun and immersive visit of the Parc des Princes, and OCEANS, a virtual odyssey through an interactive aquarium.
In reaction to the lockdown in April 2020, Nathanaël and Elisha Karmitz launched mk2 Curiosity, a video-on-demand platform selected without algorithms by mk2’s programmers and cinephile teams. In 2020, they launched mk2 Institut, a space for expression, dialogue and exchanges which gives a voice to artists, authors and researchers, including Erri de Luca, Esther Duflo and François Surreau. They each encourage debate to discuss the world of today and tomorrow.
Created at the beginning of the 2010 decade by Elisha and Nathanaël Karmitz, the Paradiso brand aims to offer new life experiences around cinema. He opened Germain Paradisio, Paris’s first on-demand, private and luxury cinema, in the heart of the Latin Quarter. Hidden in the basement of Café Germain and entirely designed by India Mahdavi, the cinema soon became a reference.
Paradiso became the creative laboratory for many new cinema uses and reinvested the before and after screening with the Cinéma Paradiso events in 2013 and 2015, held under the nave of the Grand Palais, and in 2019 and every year since 2021 in the Square courtyard of the Louvre museum. Following on from this, Elisha and Nathanaël Karmitz opened the Hotel Paradiso in 2021, the first cinema-hotel with a unique concept in the world. Hotel Paradiso is shaking up the codes of the hotel and cinema industries while reflecting the mk2 values: selection, sharing, discovery and accessibility.
Also in 2021, Nathanaël acquired the legendary Cinema Paz in Madrid. This iconic theatre, which opened in Madrid in 1943, joins the mk2 network, which now counts 11 sites in Spain, including 2 in Madrid.
Photo credit : Philippe Quaisse for mk2 (2011)