Cannes Market Dailies

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Julie Taymor’s feature film of Gloria Steinem’s My Life On The Road titled The Glorias, starring Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Janelle Monáe and Bette Midler premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and will be released this coming September 2020. Other film credits include Fool's Fire, Oedipus Rex starring Jessye Norman which received an Emmy Award as well as the International Classical Music Award, Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange; Frida starring Salma Hayek which garnered six Academy Award nominations and won two; Across the Universe which received Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, The Tempest, starring Helen Mirren, and a cinematic version of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, filmed during her critically acclaimed stage production at Theatre for a New Audience and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Her Broadway adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received 11 Tony Award nominations, with Julie receiving awards for Best Director and Costume Designer. The show has played over 100 cities in 19 countries, and its worldwide gross exceeds that of any entertainment title in box office history.

Other theater credits include the play Grounded, starring Anne Hathaway, at the Public Theater as well as Broadway’s M Butterfly starring Clive Owen, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, The Green Bird, and Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass, which earned five Tony Award nominations including one for her direction. Operas include Oedipus Rex, with Jessye Norman, The Flying Dutchman, Salome, Die Zauberflote (in repertory at the Met), The Magic Flute (which inaugurated a PBS series entitled “Great Performances at the Met”); and Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel. 

Taymor is a recipient of the 1991 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, as well as a 2015 inductee into the Theater Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater, the recipient of the 2015 Shakespeare Theatre Company’s William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre, and a 2017 Disney Legends Award honoree.

Effie T. Brown is the CEO of Gamechanger, which launched in 2013 as the first film financing fund by and for women and now under Brown’s leadership includes projects by and about people of color, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities as well as its expansion into television and digital content. Brown is also an award-winning film, television, and digital producer known for her highly acclaimed, multi-platform repertoire as well as championing inclusion and diversity in Hollywood, both behind and in front of the camera. Brown has produced several critically acclaimed films and award-winning projects including Real Women Have Curves (directed by Patricia Cardosa) Dear White People (2015 Independent Spirit Awards Best First Screenplay), HBO’s Project Greenlight (Executive Produced by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck), among several others. Brown also served as an executive producer on Lee Daniels’ STAR on FOX and Disney Channel’s Zombies. Prior to Gamechanger, Brown founded Duly Noted Inc., a company dedicated to ground-breaking narratives that use genre to challenge and advance our culture in a disruptive way. Brown’s dream is to change the world through film and TV – celebrating our differences while bringing us all closer together.

In February 2018 Chairman and CEO Stuart Ford, one of the most experienced and prolific independent film and television producers and financiers in the industry, launched AGC Studios, a new international film and television production and licensing company that develops, produces, finances and globally licenses a diverse portfolio of feature films, scripted, unscripted and factual television, digital, and musical content from its dual headquarters in Los Angeles and London. The studio’s Hollywood output has a wide-ranging multicultural focus, designed for exploitation across an array of global platforms including major studio partnerships, streaming platforms, traditional broadcast and cable television networks, and independent distributors, both in the US and internationally.

AGC Studios has already established a prolific and high profile presence financing feature films from established directors such as VOYAGERS from Neil Burger and BREAKING NEWS IN YUBA COUNTY from Tate Taylor and upcoming films from the likes of Neill Blomkamp and Pierre Morel; big budget TV dramas such as Epix’s War of the Worlds and the upcoming adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s News of a Kidnapping for Amazon; a slate of feature documentary co-productions with industry leader CNN Films including SCANDALOUS and the upcoming JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE; handled international sales and distribution on two $100m+ budgeted films for Roland Emmerich  - U.S. box office #1 Midway and the upcoming Moonfall as well as on LAIKA’s Golden Globe® winning Missing Link and documentary films and episodic series from Oscar® heavyweights Michael Moore and Oliver Stone.

UK-born and Oxford educated, Ford is a former entertainment attorney and studio executive who in 2007 founded IM Global, which over the next ten years he built into one of the industry’s leading independent film and television production, financing and sales platforms. Under Ford’s stewardship IM Global operated from offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Mexico City, Berlin and Beijing. The company produced and financed over 30 feature films of its own as well as handling international sales on more than one hundred first run feature films and handling a library of over 600 titles. The company also owned Mundial, a leading Latino sales and financing company; operated one of the premier international sales platforms for Chinese cinema; and operated Valor Entertainment, a multi-cultural talent management group.  In addition, as a joint venture with Chinese internet giant Tencent, the company operated IM Global Television, a full service scripted and unscripted television production, financing and distribution studio.

In 2015 IM Global and Ford were the recipient of Variety’s Achievement in International Film Award, and Ford has also been listed by the UK’s Guardian newspaper as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Global Cinema. Ford is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as well as the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

PANEL SPEAKERS:

Judith Chan is an Executive Director in the Media Banking Office at Coutts & Co, a leading private bank with a specialist media division involved in all areas of the media and creative industries including film, television, music, theatre, arts, advertising, marketing services, publishing, tech and fashion.  She heads up its business development for the team, originating new business, developing new products and specialises in structuring film and television debt transactions.  Judith has over twenty years experience in media financing, starting her career at NatWest Markets in Los Angeles as an Analyst where she spearheaded the Bank’s involvement with the independent film and television sectors, followed by Ingenious Media where she managed three equity funds principally investing in television content, and over 15 years with the Media team at Coutts.

Cristina Garza is an Agent in the Media Finance department at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA).  Garza is based in the Los Angeles office and specializes in independently financed film, television, and digital content for the Latin American and Spanish markets.

Garza joined CAA in 2019 from AGC Studios, where she was the Head of Latino Content. Previously, she ran Mundial, IM Global’s Latin American film sales arm, prior to which she ran distribution at Canana Films in Mexico.

Garza graduated from New York University with a degree in Economics.

Maggie Monteith first started her career in film working across the media and marketing of Warner Bros Films in the UK and Europe while working at Grey Entertainment and Media. Moving to Columbia TriStar UK and Ireland, she oversaw the marketing for films such as Men in Black, Mask of Zorro, Godzilla, and her personal favourite, Matilda.

Promoted to work at Columbia TriStar in US Domestic, she moved to California, and enjoyed working on films such as Charlie’s Angels, Spider-man and Stuart Little. Her studio-marketing career culminated in working for Lucasfilm on marketing, promotions, media and publicity worldwide for Episode II of Star Wars. Over the next few years Maggie worked in the start-up of Participant Media, and as a consultant to banks and hedge funds for Gerson Lehrman. It was at this time that she decided to move into film financing.

Since 2009 Maggie has been part of the financing for over 30 feature films as a producer, including Noel Clarke’s Brotherhood, Rupert Jones’ Kaleidoscope, Deborah Haywood’s Pin Cushion, Carol Morley’s Out of Blue and Oliver Parker’s Swimming with Men. Last year saw the world premiere of Tom Cullen’s Pink Wall at the SXSW Film Festival where critics called it “Raw, bleeding, and explosively truthful, with knockout performances” (Daily Telegraph) and “Intoxicating. This decade’s Blue Valentine” (Total Film). The Tatiana Maslany and Jay Duplass relationship drama went on to tour the festival circuit and opened in the UK in December. Another first-time filmmaker Monteith was determined to champion is Dolly Wells. Encouraged by Maggie she penned and directed Brooklyn set a coming of age tale, Good Posture, starring Emily Mortimer and Grace Van Patten. Good Posture premiered at the 2019, Tribeca Film Festival and went on to have a high-profile independent release in the UK and releases domestically later this year.

2020 sees Maggie’s second collaboration with Met Films planned to open in cinemas this fall. 23 Walks is a gentle romantic drama which explores the meeting of British pensioners, played by Alison Steadman and Dave Johns. Dave and Sheila form an instant connection but struggle to move things forward when encountering the baggage their pasts bring.

In addition, Maggie has been part of the financing and production for six documentaries under her Documentary Company banner, including the Oscar winning Searching for Sugarman and Ferrari documentary, Race to Immortality.

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HOSTED BY:

KATHERINE WINSTON
CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER
WINSTON | BAKER

Katherine Winston has been at the forefront of event production, marketing and emerging trends for nearly twenty years. As co-founder and managing partner of WINSTON | BAKER, she oversees business operations, event production, marketing strategies, and new initiatives. In her previous role as Director of Marketing for RealD, she was in charge of creative advertising, supervised public relations, and organized event participation, product launches, and screenings. Prior to RealD, Winston was Senior Marketing Manager for GoTV Networks, where she was responsible for all aspects of marketing strategy and execution, including corporate and consumer marketing, web-to-mobile advertising, print, online, and experiential marketing, public relations, and managing brand partnership deals. Before GoTV, Winston was Conference Producer for Strategic Research Institute where she was responsible for producing high profile investment conferences for various sectors, including e-commerce, nanotech, defense & aerospace, biotech, law, real estate, and entertainment, among others. Winston earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with honors from the University of Washington and is a Phi Beta Kappa and National Association of Professional Women member. As a fervent advocate of entrepreneurialism, Winston is dedicated to connecting innovators with seasoned professionals who can fuel development and growth.