Mentors - Sales & Acquisitions
Learn about the nuts and bolts of the all-important packaging, marketing and selling of your film. Who you are selling to? How do you land that buyer? Who picks up the tab? FInd out here.
Mentor session signup is open to all Film, Gold and Platinum badge holders at a first-come, first-served basis. Registrants who signed up online must check-in 30 minutes before your mentor time slot to guarantee your spot. Limited on-site signup is also available for a small number of mentor sessions spots and will begin 30 minutes before the first time slot of each session.
To sign up for a mentor session click on the link for the mentor you are interested in meeting with:
Bec Smith -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/238
Charlotte Mickie -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/236
Deborah McIntosh -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/239
Diana Holtzberg -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/240
Greg Rhem -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/243
John Sloss -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/242
Keri Safran -- http://mentor.sxsw.com/mentors/237
Presenters
Bec Smith is an agent in the Motion Picture Literary Department of leading talent and literary agency UTA, as well as an agent in UTA’s Independent Film Group where she focuses on the packaging, financing and sales of independent film. In this capacity she has worked on titles including Miranda July’s THE FUTURE, Jesse Peretz’s OUR IDIOT BROTHER, Mike Mills' BEGINNERS, Greg Mottola's ADVENTURELAND, Alan Ball's TOWELHEAD and Clark Gregg's CHOKE.
Smith also represents a number of directors and writers, including David Michôd (ANIMAL KINGDOM) and Julia Leigh (SLEEPING BEAUTY).
A former producer and film journalist, Smith joined UTA from the Sydney office of Working Title Films where she was Head of Development. Smith executive produced the David Michôd-directed independent feature ANIMAL KINGDOM, which won the 2010 Sundance Film Festival’s Dramatic World Cinema Jury Prize.
Prior to working in development and production she was the Australasian bureau chief of the Hollywood Reporter and the editor of Inside Film Magazine in Australia.
Smith currently serves on the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) Advisory Board.
Charlotte Mickie is the Executive Vice President of Entertainment One, a Canadian company that produces, distributes and sells film and television around the world. Charlotte is currently handling a slate that includes, among other films, Sundance 2012 Grand Jury Prize winner BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD by Benh Zeitlin, KEYHOLE, the latest film by Guy Maddin, starring Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini and Udo Kier, Cannes competition entry SLEEPING BEAUTY from director Julia Leigh, DREAMS OF A LIFE by Carol Morley, and Paul Andrew Williams’ upcoming SONG FOR MARION, starring Terence Stamp, Vanessa Redgrave and Gemma Arterton. Other recent films on Charlotte’s slate include ANIMAL KINGDOM, directed by David Michôd and starring Guy Pearce, Ben Mendelsohn and Academy Award® nominee Jacki Weaver, the Oscar®-nominated documentary WASTE LAND directed by Lucy Walker, and the Oscar®-nominated drama INCENDIES directed by Denis Villeneuve. Charlotte was previously a Managing Director of Celluloid Dreams where she handled films such as FUNNY GAMES, SAVAGE GRACE, I’M NOT THERE and WATER.
Deborah McIntosh is an agent in WME’s Global Finance and Distribution group. McIntosh is part of a team that creates advantageous financing packages and innovative distribution deal structures for financier clients and content creators. WME’s Global division navigates the shifting media landscape, identifying both traditional and non-traditional sources of project financing and distribution worldwide.
Among other projects, McIntosh is currently consulting to a theater chain, building a new marketing company, and working to create a film festival.
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007, McIntosh started her career in entertainment as an agent trainee at the William Morris Agency. Most recently the coordinator for the Global division, she was promoted in 2011.
Founded in 1982 by Jan Rofekamp, Films Transit International is one of the longest running, renowned and respected agencies specializing in the worldwide release and marketing of high quality theatrical and TV documentaries, many of which win prestigious awards all over the world. We strive to make deals for our filmmakers according to their goals, to secure their world festival premiere and design their international festival career. Each year we take on 20-25 new films.
With Films Transit since 2001, Diana executive produces / creative produces a select number of film projects each year where she helps develop, find financing, form and implement distribution strategies. Some examples: BERT STERN: ORIGINAL MADMAN, GENIUS WITHIN: The Inner Life Of Glen Gould, THE ART OF FAILURE (for which she won an Emmy in 2009 for Outstanding Arts & Culture Programming), END OF THE CENTURY: THE STORY OF THE RAMONES, IMAGINARY WITNESS: Hollywood and the Holocaust, and STILL DOING IT: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65. She is co-author of a book based on STILL DOING IT; the co-author with Jan Rofekamp of three widely read documentary film industry articles; and the credited ghostwriter of The Warrior Diet - a health/ fitness/nutrition book. Diana began her career in the magazine business, working at SPIN, Inc. and Details. During this time she produced groundbreaking TV specials for MTV and Fox Sports Network. www.filmstransit.com
Greg Rhem is Director of Documentary Programming for Home Box Office. For the past sixteen years, he's been involved in discovering new and distinctive documentary programming for HBO Documentary Films. Some of his finds have been: the Oscar®-winning Freeheld and Born Into Brothels; Oscar®-nominated The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner and Spellbound. Mr. Rhem holds a M.A. in Media Studies from the New School University, and a B.A. degree in English and Film Studies from the University of Rochester.
John Sloss is the founder of the entertainment and media advisory firm Cinetic Media and a co-founder of Cinetic Rights Management. He is also the founder of and a partner in the entertainment law firm Sloss Eckhouse LawCo LLP. Additionally, he recently co-founded Producers Distribution Agency, theatrical distributor of Exit Through the Gift Shop, Senna and The Way.
Keri Safran, Manager of Acquisitions, Open Road Films, has worked at Walt Disney Studios, Lionsgate, Weinstein Company and One Way Out Media.
Sunday, March 11
