Belgian-born John Engel started his film career in the U.S. in the 1980s. In New York then Los Angeles, he worked as production manager on such major studio films as Neil Jordan’s Interview With the Vampire, Brian De Palma’s Raising Cain, and Cabin Boy produced by Tim Burton. He then went on to exec-produce features – e.g., Maniac Cop 2 and James and the Giant Peach (again produced by Tim Burton). In Belgium John founded Left Field Ventures in 2002. The company’s first order of business was to publish Uncommon Sound, John’s massive two-volume encyclopedia on music. Then he went back to movie making in 2008, co-founding Cinéastes Associés. Under that banner he produced four feature films in three years (including Tom Geens’s Menteur and Bernard Halut’s Miss Mouche), while lining up Left Field Ventures’ own production slate, starting with Vincent Lannoo’s third opus, Vampires, in 2010.

Today Left Field Ventures’ core team counts John Engel, producer and c.e.o., Marie Queffeulou, production and development overseer.

Left Field Ventures produces mainly feature-length motion pictures, from projects that the company develops with Belgian or foreign writers and directors to international co-productions aimed at the widest audience.