Board of Directors | The Gotham

Anthony Bregman is CEO of Likely Story. His 50+ films have won awards at the Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Gothams, Indie Spirits, and Cannes, Berlin, Tribeca and Sundance Film Festivals. They include ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, ‘In the Heights’, ‘Sing Street’, ‘Do Revenge’, ‘Flora and Son’, ‘Eileen’, ‘You Hurt My Feelings’, ‘Things Heard and Seen’, ‘Foxcatcher’, ‘Indignation’, ‘Begin Again’, ‘Enough Said’, ‘American Ultra’, ‘Our Idiot Brother’, ‘Synecdoche New York’, ‘Please Give’, ‘The Savage’, ‘Lovely & Amazing’, ‘Thumbsucker’, ‘Collateral Beauty’, ‘The Circle’, ‘Private Life’, ‘Topside’, ‘The Half of It’, ‘Downhill’, ‘Someone Great’, and many others. Read more…

Jeb Brody is President of Imagine Features, overseeing the company’s film development and production. Prior to joining Imagine, Brody served as President of Amblin Partners, where he developed and produced a slate of films for Steven Spielberg’s company that included the Sam Mendes-directed ‘1917’. Read more…

Gerry Byrne is PMC’s Vice Chairman, guiding business initiatives across PMC’s entire portfolio of media brands. Gerry’s decades of accomplishments as a media executive, entrepreneur and community leader are highlighted by his longtime run as publisher of Variety, where he dramatically transformed that business into a powerful, diversified, global media brand. Read more…

Jason Cassidywas named Vice Chairman of Focus Features in November 2019 after joining the studio as President of Marketing in 2016. As Vice Chairman, Cassidy oversees Focus’ theatrical marketing operations and digital initiatives, and leads the releasing side of the business, working closely with the distribution and strategic planning departments on all global film releases. Read more…

During his tenure, Focus has released some of the most successful films of the last decade, including Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, The Northman from visionary filmmaker Robert Eggers, as well as Academy Award® winning films like Belfast from Kenneth Branagh, Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, Phantom Thread from Paul Thomas Anderson and Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour, and Downton Abbey, which went on to become the highest-grossing Focus film of all time. Over the last five years, Focus has had the No. 1 market share at the domestic specialty box office and was voted the No. 1 brand in the specialty space for high quality films by consumers. Additionally, Focus’ direct-to-consumer platform, “Focus Insiders,” has grown to more than 1.5 million subscribers to-date. The studio was also named International Distributor of the Year by The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 and one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies for two consecutive years. In 2022, Cassidy and Focus Chairman Peter Kujawski were given the Industry Tribute by the Gotham Awards for their contributions to independent film. Cassidy has over 25 years of experience marketing films, including at Open Road Films where he served as Chief Marketing Officer and led the campaign for Spotlight (2015), which won the Academy Award® for Best Picture. Over the course of his career, he has led more than 175 marketing campaigns resulting in nearly $3 billion at the domestic box office including multiple #1 openings. Prior to Open Road, he ran the marketing department at Miramax Films. In addition to Spotlight, Cassidy spearheaded campaigns for two more Best Picture Academy Award® winners, Chicago (2002) and No Country for Old Men (2007). The latter movie also garnered Cassidy and his department the Key Art Award for Best Campaign of the Year. Cassidy is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a multiple Key Art Award winner and was on The Hollywood Reporter’s “Next Gen” executives list. He has been a guest lecturer at New York University, Columbia Business School, and USC.

Alina Cho is an Emmy Award-winning contributor to CBS Sunday Morning, producer of the upcoming Netflix documentary on Martha Stewart and host of The Atelier with Alina Cho at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Previously, for nearly a decade, Ms. Cho was a National Correspondent for CNN. She also hosted the network specials, Fashion: Backstage Pass and Big Stars, Big Giving. Prior to her work at CNN, Ms. Cho held various posts at ABC and CNBC. She earned an M.S. from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a B.A. from Boston College. She also holds an honorary doctorate from Old Dominion University for her contributions to journalism.

Dan Crown is the founder of Red Crown Productions, a privately financed New York-based production company. He currently serves on the Board of Lenox Hill Hospital, Hamptons International Film Festival, Connecticut Public Broadcasting, The Jerusalem Foundation, The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, The Lollipop Theater Network, and Independent Filmmaker Project. A native of Chicago, Dan resides in New York City where he and his wife, Ellen, are the proud parents of four children.

Colman Domingo is a 2024 BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe, Critics Choice, Astra and Satellite Award nominee for his starring role as Bayard Rustin in the Netflix and Higher Ground film, ‘Rustin’. Colman received the 2024 “Spotlight Actor” award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama, a Hollywood Critics Association Award for Best Actor in a Limited Series/Anthology, and an Imagen Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for his role as Ali in the HBO series Euphoria. Read more… Recently, Colman starred as Mister in the Warner Brothers, Oprah Winfrey, and Steven Spielberg produced The Color Purple, which he received a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture as well as a Critics Choice Association Ensemble Award for. He will next be seen in Focus Features’ Drive Aways Dolls, and A24’s Sing Sing directed by Greg Kwedar which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival – where he received the prestigious TIFF Tribute Award for Distinguished Career Achievement. Later this year, he stars in the Netflix limited series The Madness. In 2023, Domingo was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Production of a Play for the Pulitzer Prize winning play Fat Ham on Broadway. A two time Film Independent Spirit, Gotham, SAG, Critics Choice, NAACP Image, Tony®, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Drama Desk, Drama League and NAACP Theatre Award nominee for his work on stage and screen, Colman is an OBIE and Lucille Lortel Award winning actor, playwright, director and producer. Colman has starred in some of the most profound films in recent years such as Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, Steven Spielbergs’ Lincoln, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Ava DuVernay’s Selma, Nia DaCosta’s Candyman and Janicza Bravo’s Zola. As a writer, his plays and musicals include DOT(Samuel French), Wild With Happy (Dramatist Play Service) and A Boy and his Soul (Oberon Books), the Tony Award nominated Broadway musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and Geffen Playhouse’s groundbreaking musical Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole. His plays have been produced by The Public Theater, Vineyard, La Jolla Playhouse, Humana Festival of New American Plays, New York Stage and Film, A.C.T, The Tricycle Theater in London, Brisbane Powerhouse in Australia, among others. Domingo received his Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Ursinus College. He is on the faculty of University of Southern California, School of Dramatic Arts as a Professor of acting, after having served as a Juilliard School Creative Associate and a faculty member of the Yale School of Drama. He has been honored with the inaugural Denver Film Cinema Q-LaBahn Ikon Film Award, the National Hispanic Media Coalition Impact Award, the Creative Coalition Television Humanitarian Award and the Atlanta’s Out On Film Icon Award. Through his award-winning production company, Edith Productions, Colman develops television, film, theater and animation projects.

James Janowitz is among the country’s most respected entertainment and media lawyers. As chair of Pryor Cashman’s Media + Entertainment group and a senior partner in the Litigation Group, Jim has helped the firm build one of the most comprehensive entertainment practices in the country. He represents some of the industry’s most celebrated artists and performers as well as influential producers, film studios, television studios, networks and investors. Read more…

Riley KeoughEmmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award nominee Riley Keough is one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actresses, known for her chameleon-like versatility that spans blockbuster hits to independent films. The actress can most recently be seen in Amazon’s highly anticipated original series Daisy Jones and the Six, based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best selling novel. Keough stunned critics and audiences alike with her Emmy-nominated portrayal of Daisy and within hours of their respective releases, the series hit No. 1 on Amazon Prime Video’s Top 10 list in the U.S., and the show’s coinciding debut album Aurora made it to No. 1 in the U.S. on iTunes. Read more…

Keough’s performance in A24’s Zola in 2021 earned her rave reviews following the film’s Sundance premiere in 2019, She then made her big-screen debut as Marie Currie in The Runaways starring opposite Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. In 2016, her role in Steven Soderbergh’s original 13-part series The Girlfriend Experience, earned her a Golden Globe Award Nomination in the category of “Best Actress in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.” Later that year, Keough was also seen in Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, which earned her a 2017 Film Independent Spirit Award nomination in the category of “Best Supporting Female” and which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. Previous credits also include Amazon’s The Terminal List, Bradley Rust Gray’s Jack & Diane, Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike, Nick Cassavetes’ Yellow, Xan Cassavetes’ Kiss of the Damned. Wash Westmoreland’s Earthquake Bird, Antonio Campos’ The Devil All the Time, The Lodge, Under the Silver Lake, The House That Jack Built, and Hold the Dark, in addition to Mad Max: Fury Road, The Discovery, It Comes at Night, and Logan Lucky. In 2017, Keough and producing partner Gina Gammell co-founded the production company Felix Culpa. Their ethos is simply: Art First. Felix Culpa is dedicated to telling bold, boundary-pushing, and emotionally rich stories that challenge audiences to see the world differently while giving a voice to talent and stories that need to be heard. Felix Culpa Films has developed a slate of over 30 projects, including Keough’s directorial debut, War Pony. War Pony competed in the 2022 Festival De Cannes, which resulted in an astounding win of the Camera D’Or award as well as the honorable mention at the 2022 Munich Film Festival. Following its US release in 2023, the film was selected as a NYT Critics Pick and became certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Felix Culpa recently produced Manodrome, which follows a New York Uber driver named Ralphie, played by Jesse Eisenberg, and is currently in production for Under the Bridge, Hulu’s limited series based on Rebecca Godfrey’s book.

Franklin Leonard is a film and television producer, cultural commentator, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the Black List, a company dedicated to identifying and supporting remarkable screenwriting and fiction through its annual survey of Hollywood’s most liked screenplays and its online marketplace for screenplays, television pilots, theatrical plays, and novels. To date, more than 400 scripts from the Black List’s annual survey have been produced as feature films, resulting in more than $30B in global box office and 300 Academy Award nominations and 50 wins, including four Best Pictures and nearly half of the screenwriting Oscars awarded since 2007. Read more…

Stephanie March is a philanthropist, actress, and producer best known for her role as ADA Alexandra Cabot on NBC’s long-running crime series ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’. Most recently, Ms. March has played Blinky in Ava DuVernay’s film, ‘Origin’ (2023), and starred in the action thriller from Harlan Coben, ‘Shelter’ (2023). Read more…

Theresa Peters is a Partner in the Talent Department at leading global talent, entertainment, sports, and advisory company UTA. Peters joined UTA from the William Morris Agency, where she was an agent for 14 years. She is a fixture within the entertainment industry, having cultivated a roster of long-time clients both in front of and behind the camera. Her tenacity for developing talent into franchise stars, award winners, and creative virtuosos is renowned. Widely respected for her taste in material and eye for emerging talent, Peters represents a distinguished roster of established and rising stars working in all areas of the entertainment business. Read more…

Dee Poku Dee Poku-Spalding is an entrepreneur and women’s advocate born in the UK and raised between London and Accra. She is the founder and CEO of The WIE Suite, a private membership community and peer learning platform for women leaders, creators and innovators. Read more…

Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar is the Vice President for Community Engagement at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where she leads initiatives that foster RPI’s role in economic, social, cultural, and technological growth in the Capital Region. Read more…

John Schmidt is a Founding Partner of October Films. Mr. Schmidt co-founded Content Media Corporation plc (alternative name Content Media Corporation Limited and Contentfilm Plc) in July 2001 and has been its Chief Executive Officer since 2001. Content bought 50% stake of Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions. He has over 30 years of experience building, acquiring and developing successful businesses in the media marketplace. Read more…

Lisa Taback is a renowned entertainment strategic marketing and PR executive, best known for Oscar campaigns that include THE POWER OF THE DOG, DON’T LOOK UP, ROMA, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, MARRIAGE STORY, LA LA LAND, MOONLIGHT, SPOTLIGHT, THE KING’S SPEECH, LADY BIRD, CHICAGO and SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, among many others. Read more…

Teddy Schwarzman is the President & CEO of Black Bear Pictures, one of the most prolific producers operating in the space today. Since launching in 2011, the company has grossed over $350 million worldwide, been nominated for thirteen Academy Awards®, ten Golden Globes®, and ten BAFTAs®, and launched its newly minted independent television arm, Black Bear Television, last year. Read more… Upcoming projects include Academy Award® winning duo Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s narrative directorial debut, Nyad, starring Jodie Foster and Annette Bening for Netflix and the Amazon TV series ”Exciting Times,” based on Naoise Dolan’s debut novel, starring Phoebe Dynevor. He’s currently in post-production on Dave Franco’s Somebody I Used to Know at Amazon, Neil Burger’s The Marsh King’s Daughter starring Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn for STX Films, and Martin Campbell’s Memory, starring Liam Neeson and Guy Pearce, which Briarcliff Entertainment & Open Road will release 29 April 2022.

Schwarzman financed, produced and released five films in 2020/2021 including: J Blakeson’s I Care A Lot starring Rosamund Pike which sold to Netflix for 8 figures and was the most watched movie on the service after it debuted on February 19 and earned Pike the Golden Globe for Best Actress, Musical or Comedy; Heidi Ewing’s I Carry You With Me, which won the Next Section Audience Award and Innovator Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by Sony Pictures Classics; Dave Franco’s The Rental, which hit No. 1 at the BO/Digital for multiple weeks; Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s Our Friend starring Jason Segel, Dakota Johnson and Casey Affleck which was jointly released by Universal and Gravitas; and Chad Hartigan’s Little Fish starring Olivia Cooke and Jack O’Connell. Previous credits includes: Academy Award winner The Imitation Game; J.C. Chandor’s All is Lost; George Clooney’s Suburbicon; Peter Hedges’ Ben Is Back; and served as Executive Producer of Dee Rees’ Academy Award nominated Mudbound.

In addition, Black Bear owns Elevation Pictures Corp, the leading independent film and TV distribution company in Canada, and has a strategic distribution partnership with STX Entertainment and Elevation Pictures, creating an exclusive output deal for STXinternational to sell and distribute all Black Bear productions internationally, with Elevation Pictures distributing all STX productions in Canada.

Schwarzman earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Duke University School of Law, where he also sits on the Board of Visitors. He’s also on the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors.

Drew Wilson has more than 20+ years of executive leadership experience at entertainment, media and music companies. Recently Drew was Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Souncloud a music platform where he led the company to its first profitable year in its 16-year history. Read more…

Celia Winchester is the founder of Winchester Consulting, a managerial accounting firm offering general bookkeeping, payroll, CFO services and everything in between. Read more…

Honorary Directors

Nancy Abraham, Director Emeritus is Executive Vice President, Documentary Programming, for HBO. She is responsible for the development and production of HBO Documentary Films and documentary series which have garnered prestigious industry awards including Primetime Emmys®, News and Documentary Emmys®, George Foster Peabody Awards, Alfred I. DuPont Awards and Academy Awards®. She was named to this position in 2018. Read more…

Mark D’Arcy, Director Emeritus After a decade-long run, Mark D’Arcy has exited as chief creative officer and global head of business marketing at Facebook — now called Meta. D’Arcy joined the social media giant in 2011, and alongside his team, produced several thousand projects across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Oculus for a diverse client base including 80% of the world’s top 100 advertisers. Read more…

Soledad O’Brien, Director Emeritus is an award-winning documentarian, journalist, speaker, author, philanthropist, and founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions, a media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues. She anchors and produces “Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien,” a Hearst political magazine program seen in 95% of the country. She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in May 2023. Read more…

Joana Vicente, Director Emeritusis an award-winning producer and a passionate supporter of independent storytellers who has extensive experience running nonprofits in the film and media space. Most recently Joana was the CEO of Sundance Institute. Prior to joining Sundance Institute, she spent three years as Executive Director and Co-Head of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the TIFF organization. Before that, she spent nearly a decade as the Executive Director of the not-for-profit Independent Filmmaker Project (now the Gotham Film & Media Institute). Read more…

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