Mentors: Producers/Production 1
Film production runs the gamut from pre to post. Learn from industry professionals who have experience in the wide range of experiences film production entails.
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Presenters
Deborah McIntosh
Agent
WME Entertainment
WME Global agent Deborah McIntosh has helped structure the financing and arrange North American distribution for some of the most successful independent films of the past year. As part of her work in WME, she develops financing packages for production companies and secures theatrical distribution to international and domestic markets.
McIntosh recently closed financing for Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash,” the feature adaptation of his Sundance-winning short. Jason Reitman (“Up In The Air”), Jason Blum (“The Purge”) and Bold Films are all on board to produce. McIntosh also assisted with the financing of Nic Refn's’ “Drive” , Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton's upcoming film "Life Itself", and Jeff Baena's directorial debut "Life After Beth" starring Dane Dehaan, Aubrey Plaza, and John C Reilly.
McIntosh was part of the team that sold “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” which went on to earn four Academy Award nominations. McIntosh was also involved in the sale of “The Way, Way Back” from Oscar winners Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, one of the biggest sales in Sundance history. At the Toronto Film Festival this year, she was part of the team that sold Denis Villaneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal's independent feature "Enemy" to A24. She continues to represent and work closely with Alamo Drafthouse to develop their Drafthouse Films distribution arm.
Ginger Sledge
Producer
Zenzero
GINGER SLEDGE (Producer) has produced projects during a feature film career spanning from mid-1980’s to present day. She has worked on both studio and independently financed films.
Some of Ms. Sledge’s extensive feature credits include “Dark Places,” “Parkland, “Bernie,” “Appaloosa,” “Mickey Blue Eyes,” “The Only Thrill,” “Little Boy Blue” and Richard Linklater’s “Suburbia,” “Waiting for Guffman.” “The Great Buck Howard,” “Lords of Dogtown,” “Sideways” and “Miss Congeniality.”
Additionally, Sledge’s film career started in New York as a location manager on features such as “A Bronx Tale,” directed by Robert De Niro; Rob Reiner’s “North”; “Night and the City,” directed by Irwin Winkler, and Ivan Reitman’s “Ghostbusters 2.
Hugues Barbier
Co Founder/Artistic Dir
Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival
Hugues Barbier is a long time genre films lover that grew up watching Giallos, American Grindhouse and other exploitation flicks. He’s been involved for over 5 years in the organization and programming of the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival and is the Co-Founder/Artistic Director of the Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival upstate NY. Hugues is also working for the Toronto based International sales/Production/Distribution company: Raven Banner as well as being an independent exec. producer (Dios Local, Gustavo Hernandez- 2014).
James M Johnston
Producer
Pit Stop
AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, PIT STOP, LISTEN UP PHILIP
Kelly Williams
Producer
Black Metal/Pit Stop
Kelly Williams is an independent producer and film programmer. A graduate of the film program at UT Austin, Kelly has collaborated with producing partner Jonathan Duffy to produce two feature films. The first was Yen Tan’s feature PIT STOP that premiered at Sundance in 2013 and was nominated for the 2014 Independent Spirit Awards’ John Cassavetes Award. The second is Kat Candler’s 2014 Sundance Film Festival selection HELLION starring Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis. Hellion is a recipient of a San Francisco Film Society/ Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant.
Based in Austin, Williams is a 2012 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow and producer of the indie features Cinema Six and Pictures of Superheroes as well as Kat Candler’s previous short films Hellion (Sundance 2012) and Black Metal (Sundance 2013). As a film festival programmer, he was awarded the 2007 International Film Festival Summit Excellence Award.
Kevin Iwashina
Managing Partner
Preferred Content
Kevin Iwashina is a Managing Partner of Preferred Content, a film production, sales and finance advisory company.
Founded in January 2010, Preferred Content (PC) is one of the premiere brokers of North American distribution rights for both fictional and non-fictional filmed entertainment content. Additionally, PC is a leading supplier of independent movies with a specialization in low budget genre and documentary features.
Recent PC productions include David Gelb’s feature documentary, JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI, distributed in North America by Magnolia Pictures, Nicholas McCarthy’s THE PACT, released in the US and Canada by IFC Films and Xavier Gen's THE DIVIDE, distributed in North America by Anchor Bay. Other PC sales and financing projects include the 2011 Toronto Midnight Selection THE DAY, the 2012 Sundance competition films THE END OF LOVE directed by Mark Webber and Ira Sachs’ KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, and the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award winner ANY DAY NOW.
In addition to his responsibilities at PC, Iwashina is the Managing Partner of Preferred Ventures, a digital media venture fund launched with Chris Kelly, the former Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, and Ed Ojdana, the founder of FreeCreditReport.com. Iwashina also holds the title of Managing Director of City Room Creative, an entertainment marketing and creative editorial agency. Lastly, he is partnered with Christine Vachon in Killer Digital, a production company focused in creating original content for digital platforms.
Prior to founding PC and his suite of affiliated companies, Iwashina spent 10 years at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where he was a talent agent, specializing in film packaging, financing and distribution. Individual projects for which he has arranged distribution and financing include Richard Kelly's DONNIE DARKO, Zach Braff's GARDEN STATE, Paul Haggis' Academy Award winning CRASH and the Peabody Award winning documentary NANKING. Clients Iwashina has represented include Italian filmmaker Gabriele Muccino, French filmmaker Patrice Chereau, European actors Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci and Emmanuelle Seigner, independent films icons John Waters and Christine Vachon as well as Netflix and the former Vice Chairman of AOL, Ted Leonsis.
Iwashina holds a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in French Language and Culture from U.C.L.A. He is active in the non-profit and political sectors and currently serves as the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) and is a Member of the Board of Directors of the International Documentary Association (IDA). He began his career in the mailroom at the United Talent Agency (UTA).
Lindsey Dryden
Dir/Producer
Little By Little Films
Lindsey Dryden is an award-winning independent director and producer, who was nominated for 'Best New UK Filmmaker' (London Open City Docs) and 'Best Female-Directed Film' (Sheffield Doc/Fest) in 2012, for her feature doc about deafness, music and the brain, LOST AND SOUND.
LOST AND SOUND world-premiered at SXSW 2012, went on to win awards and screen at numerous festivals on 5 continents, and has picked up TV, digital and educational distribution (with a hybrid distribution strategy personalised to the film). It continues to play at special events and festivals around the world.
Lindsey spent 7 years working on TV documentaries for broadcasters like BBC, Channel 4, and History Channel, before starting to make her own films independently.
She's fiercely committed to ethical filmmaking, and to the world of indie storytelling and distribution. Through her British company Little By Little Films, she works as a producer with exciting emerging directors and films, creating bespoke and positive collaborations.
Dryden's recent projects include producing LITTLE ONES, a short documentary by rising talent Joanna Coates and funded by Film London and the Kevin Spacey Foundation; producing outreach on ANGELS AND GHOSTS, an award-winning short animation about mental health narrated by Oscar nominated actress Samantha Morton; and directing and producing a film for art galleries about 70s feminist artist Alexis Hunter.
Lindsey spent the first weeks of 2014 as Filmmaker-in-Residence at the Jacob Burns Film Center, in upstate New York. She has been mentored by Women in Film & TV (WFTV) and the National Film & Television School (NFTS) in the UK, and she trained at Goldsmiths College, London.
She founded Little By Little Films in London, UK. It specialises in beautiful and unusual storytelling in arts, health, music, and science, and is known for its richly intimate and ethical portrayals of people and subjects.
Credits/clients include Wellcome Trust, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court Theatre, Community Channel, The Space, Film London, Kevin Spacey Foundation.
DocGeeks say Little By Little makes "formidable and innovative uses of the documentary format to provide a unique insight into the human condition," – and that's how it aims to continue.
Nick Case
Producer
Paper Moon Films
Nick Case helped produce Cam Archer's WILD TIGERS I HAVE KNOWN, which premiered at Sundance in 2006. TIGERS was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and was distributed by IFC Films. He also co-produced Archer's second feature SHIT YEAR, which premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in Director's Fortnight. In 2009, Nick co-founded Paper Moon Films with his producing partner Ryan Watt. Paper Moon Films produced Kentucker Audley's OPEN FIVE and HOLY LAND. OPEN FIVE was named one of the 'Top 25 Films of 2010' by The New Yorker Magazine as well as other critical acclaim by The New York Times, Wall St. Journal, and Variety. Their second feature as a company was Martha Stephens' PILGRIM SONG, which premiered in Narrative Competition at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival. It was awarded Best Southern Film of 2012 by Oxford American Magazine. They also produced Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck's FORTY YEARS FROM YESTERDAY, which premiered at the 2013 LA Film Festival in Narrative Competition with an International Premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. Nick was invited to attend the 2011 Sundance Creative Producing Summit. He was also chosen by IFP to attend the 2013 Rotterdam Producers Lab. Paper Moon Films is currently developing additional projects with Machoian & Ojeda-Beck, Martha Stephens, Calvin Lee Reeder, Brent Stewart, Michael Melamedoff amongst others.
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