About Us

Overview

MURPHY PR has a long and distinguished background in the entertainment industry, particularly in the independent film arena. The agency creates a custom strategic approach for all its media campaigns, an approach that has been successfully deployed for film festivals, theatrical releases, television and DVD campaigns.

The firm is proud to have steered the media strategies for such recent Oscar-winning films as Milk, A Serious Man and Eastern Promises. Current and recent campaigns include Beginners, The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2012, Cook County, Private Romeo, Budrus, Stonewall Uprising, Kisses, The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Bran Nue Dae. Additional recent efforts include Prodigal Sons, Save Me, A Jihad For Love, Taking Woodstock, In Bruges, The Baader Meinhof Complex and others.

MURPHY PR also has strong corporate expertise and is currently working on Film Forward, a joint venture between Sundance Institute and a consortium of federal cultural agencies (NEA, NEH, PCAH and IMLS). Past corporate clients include IFC Films and The History Channel.

The MURPHY PR slate at the recently concluded 2012 Sundance Film Festival included such films as the Oscar nominated Monsieur Lazhar and Jury Prize winning films Teddy Bear, Love Free or Die and Faith Love and Whiskey which premiered at the 2012 Slamdance Film Festival. The MURPHY PR slate also included Corpo Celeste and First Season in addition to a special consultation with Showtime in conjunction with a Sundance event tied to the launch of their new hit series House of Lies.

In addition to Sundance, the firm routinely takes a full slate of films to the Toronto and Tribeca Film Festivals. We are quite well known for our festival work and have been a strong presence at key film festivals for many years.

Additionally, the firm is expert at regional press initiatives. Having manned many film and television campaigns, MURPHY PR has a proven track record working with regional media in the top metered markets in the U.S. The firm canvassed the country for the campaigns to support Monica & David for HBO and the launch of The L Word for Showtime in addition to select marquee programming for The History Channel.

In the Home Entertainment arena, the firm spearheaded ESPN Films campaigns for their 30 for 30 Series and the ESPN Films Collection on DVD and Blu Ray. The firm is also working with Ptarmigan Films on the release of A Life Ascending on DVD.

History ↑TOP

MURPHY PR was founded by John Murphy in 2001 with charter clients: The History Channel, IFC Films, HBO and Showtime. For The History Channel the firm handled programming publicity and special project needs. For IFC Films the firm handled corporate media relations and for HBO the agency worked on a number of programs in the HBO Documentary Films division. For Showtime, the agency handled the launch of The L Word which was a top priority for the pay cable network. Those efforts for the above resulted in a number of pieces in key trades, the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times and, memorably, an iconic cover story in New York Magazine (for The L Word).

As a result of this success, MURPHY PR enjoyed an on-going relationship with the above mentioned companies. The agency still works with HBO Documentary Films, worked with The History Channel for four years and with IFC Films and Showtime for two years. The firm enjoys strong relationships with past clients who retain the firm from time-to-time for projects.

The firm believes in true collaborations with its clients and is mindful of organizational infrastructures that are there to support the proposed outside consultant. MURPHY PR routinely reports back to its clients on a regular basis via frequent phone communications, emails, bi-weekly status reports and weekly conference calls. As such the firm shares data freely creating an open environment to share ideas, contacts and strategies. From past experience we have found that this true collaboration is the most optimal client/consultant arrangement.

Bios ↑TOP

John Murphy
Biography

MURPHY PR President John Murphy has a diversified background in public relations having created and implemented both corporate and consumer media campaigns for clients spanning television, cable, feature film, Internet and publishing. Areas of expertise include creating, deploying and overseeing the following: program publicity for television shows, release campaigns for theatrical films, corporate strategies for feature film and television production companies, business-to-business strategies for diversified media companies exploring multi platform exhibition and event publicity pertaining to these and other entertainment organizations.

Feature film campaigns include Beginners, A Serious Man, Burma VJ, MILK, Sunshine Cleaning, Shakespeare in Love, Life is Beautiful, Chocolate and many more. In addition to Film Forward and Sundance Institute, his corporate communications experience includes IFC Films, Tropfest USA, Sundance Channel and THINKfilm. He was also part of the team that launched cable networks FX and E!.

Murphy has represented a number of clients and their interests at various trade shows, film festivals and conventions including NATPE, Sundance Film Festival, Digital Hollywood, Tribeca Film Festival, Licensing Show, Toronto Film Festival, TCA, Western Show, Cannes International Film Festival and Toy Fair.

Some of the television projects Murphy has overseen include the launch of several television shows including The L Word, Spin City, Hack and numerous talk shows including The Ricky Lake Show and Sally Jessy Raphael. He routinely works with HBO on their esteemed documentary films and has created and spearheaded the media campaigns for various projects at SyFy Channel, USA Networks and Cartoon Network. Past PBS experience includes several seasons of American Masters in addition to PBS’s popular Caillou and Zoboomafoo series.

Murphy’s animation expertise includes the U.S. premiere of two popular anime films — Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Tokyo Godfathers — at the Big Apple Anime Festival in addition to the theatrical release campaign of the stop motion animated film $9.99. In addition to PBS’s Caillou and Zoboomafoo, television animation experience includes the theatrical release of Jonah: A Veggietales Movie based on the popular children’s series. Additional animation experience includes television programming efforts for Cro, Reboot and Ghostwriter and corporate representation for Rumpus, Cartoonnetwork.com and Disney Channel.

In addition to representing a number of films and companies at key film festivals, Murphy spearheaded the media campaigns for film festival organizers at NewFest, Nantucket, Woodstock, Urbanworld and New York Comedy Film Festival, among others. Additionally, he headed up the team that handled the press for the 59th and 60th Annual George Foster Peabody Awards.

In the publishing arena, Murphy oversaw campaigns for Marvel and DC Comics and the re-launch of Mad Magazine.

Murphy is a member of the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences, a guest -lecturer at NYU’s School of Continuing Education, a former member of the board of directors of GLAAD, headed up the volunteer PR committee for Live Out Loud and volunteers at a local NYC Public School as a Learning Leader. The native New Yorker is a graduate of Niagara University.

Russell Posternak – Senior Publicist
Biography

Russ graduated from Georgetown University with a BA in English and a concentration in Film and Media Studies. As a publicist at Murphy PR, Russ has organized publicity campaigns for a diverse array of clients including theatrical releases, television programming, home entertainment and corporate clients, in addition to representing a slate of films each year at the major film festivals.

National theatrical release campaigns Russ has worked on include: Knuckleball, Greedy Lying Bastards, 2012 and 2013 Oscar Nominated Short Films and Hellbound, among others. In the realm of television, Russ has organized campaigns for The Out List(HBO), Ri chard Pryor: Omit The Logic (Showtime), and The World According to Dick Cheney (Showtime). Russ has also represented award-winning films at film festivals including the Academy Award-nominated Monsieur Lazhar at Toronto, Sundance award-winner Love Free or Die and Tribeca award-winner Before Snowfall. Home entertainment campaigns Russ has coordinated include ESPN Films’ 30 for 30, SEC Storied and Nine for IX DVD collections. Previous corporate clients include Sundance Institute and Tangled Bank Studios.