About Zeus Pictures

Bold Visions.

New Voices.

Our focus is the development and production of high-quality feature length films for the North American and International markets. 

We explore innovative and compelling stories in genre, character-driven dramas and imaginative family and adult animation.

Meet the team

Zeus Kontoyannis- Owner/Producer

Zeus Kontoyannis is a producer and writer with more than a decade of experience in the film industry. He began his career at Cinetic Media, working on the Banksy documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” Next, he worked under veteran Hollywood and Broadway producer Scott Rudin. During his time at SRP, Zeus worked on films including “The Social Network,” “True Grit,” “The Dictator,” and the original theater production of “Book of Mormon.” He’s also boarded projects produced by Terry Leonard, Mynette Louie, Peter Berg, and Ross Kauffman.

His films have screened at Sundance, BFI, Annecy, SXSW, Tribeca, Sitges, Fantasia, POFF Shorts, Fantastic Fest, Santa Barbara, and many others. His newest venture, Boundless Imaginations (BI), is an international film production company co-founded with producer Ali Mashayekhi. Serving as the global arm of Zeus Pictures, BI is focused on the development and production of feature length and short films for international distribution and film festival markets.

Zeus was born in the United Kingdom, raised in Athens, Greece, and has studied film in both New York and Texas. In addition to his creative endeavors, he serves as a board member for The Nikolas Symposium, a charity founded by his parents to find a cure for LCH, a rare disease that affects his brother Nikolas.

Russell Sanzgiri- VP of Film

Russell Sanzgiri, is an Indian-American producer based in Los Angeles. A former music journalist, Russell began his career in film as an assistant to director Spike Jonze and his producing partner on the Warner Bros feature WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and on various short films such as I’M HERE, starring Andrew Garfield and HIGGLETY PIGGLETY POP, featuring the voices of Meryl Streep and Forrest Whittaker.

Russell has produced music videos for artists such as Pharrell, Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Grizzly Bear, and Warpaint. In addition to having produced award-winning short form projects, Russell has worked with comedy legends like Jack Black’s Electric Dynamite and SNL’s The Lonely Island. 

In 2021, Russell served as an executive producer on the Peabody and Primetime Emmy Award-nominated documentary film, CHANGING THE GAME for HULU and a producer on the NETFLIX docuseries WEB OF MAKE BELIEVE for Imagine Entertainment. Most recently, he produced the dark comedy feature, DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS starring Alex Winter for Shudder/AMC+. 

Emily Bennett- Creative Producer/Development

Writer/Director Emily Bennett is an Academy recognized screenwriter and award-winning director. Her films Alone With You, Accidental Stars, LVRS and Bed have screened at festivals such as Sitges, Fantastic Fest, Brooklyn Horror, Telluride Horror, BIFAN, Salem Horror and Fantasia. Her screenplay ACHE placed quarter finalist in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship (2020).

Bennett premiered her debut feature Alone With You at Fantastic Fest before an extensive festival run. The film stars Barbara Crampton and Bennett, was produced with Andrew Corkin's and actor Theo James' Untapped Productions (Martha Marcy May Marlene, We Are What We Are). 

Her second feature is currently in post and stars Larry Fessenden and Toby Poser amongst others. The film was produced by Alexander Schepsman (Martha Marcy May Marlene, Bluebird).  Bennett is a graduate of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art BA acting program where she trained extensively in areas of performance, dramaturgy, classical and modern dramatic texts. As a director and screenwriter, Bennett is represented by Antonio D'Intino at Spectrevision.and former CAA agent/lawyer Marc Von Arx.