Cinereach Producer Award

Brown’s long and illustrious career began as a Film Independent fellow in the prestigious “Project Involve” program. During her fellowship, she gained invaluable insight into the film industry. Her incredible work ethic and creative freedom allowed her to advance quickly through ranks becoming Director of Development for Tim Burton Productions in 1995. Decades later, Brown now serves as a Film Independent Board member and mentors the new generation of fellows.

Throughout her career, Brown has produced several critically acclaimed HBO Films and award-winning projects including, Stranger Inside (directed by Cheryl Dunne, 2001, World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival), Real Women Have Curves (directed by Patricia Cardosa, 2002, winner of Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award and Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Performance), Everyday People (2004, directed by Jim McKay), In The Cut (directed by Jane Campion, 2003) and Rocket Science (directed by Jeffrey Blitz, 2007, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Directing at Sundance and recipient of three Independent Spirit Awards nominations, including Best First Feature, Best Screenplay and Best Actress). In 2010, her film The Inheritance, starring Golden Brooks, won the Best Actress award at the American Black Film Festival.

In 2011, Brown made a daring venture beyond television and film. With a love of multiple platforms, she re- teamed with the award winning producing/directing duo Jon Avnet and Rodrigo Garcia to focus on digital episodic content. Together they produced over 130 episodes of WIGS, an award winning, original content channel funded by Google/YouTube and FOX Broadcasting. The channel features multiple original series showcasing “A list” actors, writers, and filmmakers to present stories centered around the ever complex lives of women, and blazes the trail for scripted content released directly online. Currently, WIGS is the number one scripted channel for drama on YouTube and has recently been picked up for wider distribution via Hulu.

Effie T. Brown then went on to produce the highly acclaimed independent feature, Dear White People. The film won multiple awards, including the Special Jury Prize for Breakthrough Talent at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and Best First Screenplay at the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards.

Given her longstanding relationship producing successful content with the network, HBO recognized Brown’s ability to mold a low budget film into a critically acclaimed success and invited her to join the controversial reboot of Project Greenlight (Executive Produced by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck). The show’s premise is to take an original screenplay and give a first time filmmaker the opportunity to work with industry professionals to create a feature film. In 2015, she served as producer and mentor to the show’s fresh new director.

Brown joined Lee Daniels Entertainment in 2016 to Executive Produce Season 1 of the hit series Star on FOX. In keeping with her commitment to inclusive and diverse content Effie Executive Produced Disney Channel’s Zombies which premiered in 2018. The high school musical delivers an inspirational story about tolerance, inclusion, individuality and conviction…but with zombies.

Currently, Brown returns to her love of inclusive genre film & television (Thriller, Action, Sci-fi, Horror) by securing several “big concept” IP told through an inclusive storytelling lens. Her company, Duly Noted Inc. continues to be dedicated to ground breaking narratives that use genre to challenge and advance our culture in a disruptive way. Her dream is to change the world through film and TV — celebrating our differences while bringing us all closer together.

Julie is the producer of Life, Animated and executive producer of Weiner, both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Life, Animated won the US Documentary Directing Award, was nominated for the 2017 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award, and won three Emmys, including the award for Best Documentary in 2018. Weiner won the US Documentary Grand Jury Prize and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. Julie executive produced the Emmy-nominated Facebook series Humans of New York, Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-shortlisted Best of Enemies, and several Emmy-nominated films: 3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets, The Kill Team, Art and Craft and 1971. Julie also produced and executive produced: Emmy Award-winning The Music of Strangers, Emmy Award-winning Solitary, Enlighten Us, Southwest of Salem, Gideon’s Army, Manhunt, God Loves Uganda, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Buck. Julie received the Amazon Studios Sundance Institute Producer’s Award and the Cinereach Producer Award.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Asher has a deep, abiding love for tacos.

Lars has produced over 30 films, including: Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Midsommar, Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Robert Eggers’ The Witch, Ira Sach’s Little Men, Love Is Strange, and Keep the Lights On, David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Andrew Dosunmu’s Mother of George, Shaul Schwarz’s Narco Cultura and Trophy, Mike Mills’ Beginners, and Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy, among others.

Ari Aster wrote and directed Hereditary, his debut feature, which stars Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Ann Dowd and Alex Wolff. The film premiered at Sundance and was released wide by A24 last summer. Hereditary was acclaimed by critics and was A24’s biggest-ever opening weekend, as well as A24’s highest-grossing film worldwide. Ari recently finished his second feature, Midsommar, which he wrote and directed. A24 will release the film wide in July. It stars Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper and Will Poulter. Ari lives in NY and is a graduate of the AFI conservatory.

Macaulay’s previous producing credits with Forensic co-founder and partner Robin O’Hara include Peter Sollett’s Raising Victor Vargas; Harmony Korine’s Gummo (co-producer) and julien donkey-boy; Alice Wu’s Saving Face; Tom Noonan’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning What Happened Was and his follow-up feature, The Wife; Jesse Peretz’s The Chateau; Bryan Barber’s Idlewild; John Leguizamo’s Undefeated; and James Ponsoldt’s debut, Off the Black. Forensic has also been involved as a co-producer in many European productions, including Olivier Assayas’s Demonlover and Clean.

Macaulay is currently producing Kitty Green’s dramatic feature, The Assistant (in post-production), and is executive producer on Jazmin Lopez’s Argentina-set drama, My Darling Valentin.

Macaulay is also the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Filmmaker Magazine, a quarterly print publication and daily website published by IFP that recently celebrated its 25th year of publication. He has taught and lectured extensively on independent film production at places such as the Sundance Documentary Film Program, the Venice Biennale College Cinema, CPH:DOX, and the Dubai International Film Festival. Prior to his work in film, Macaulay was for five years the Performance Curator and Programming Director of New York’s experimental art space, The Kitchen.

In 1998, he and O’Hara were awarded an Independent Spirit Award for their work in independent film, and in 2018 Macaulay was awarded the Cinereach Producer Award.

MEMORY has approached production, marketing and distribution strategy holistically, crafting their own marketing assets, and at times booking their own theatrical tours. Born from that experience, MEMORY started MEMORY Studio, and has since done for hire design work for filmmakers like Barry Jenkins, Ana Lily Amirpour, Sean Durkin, Duplass Brothers Productions and many more. In 2019 MEMORY crafted the trailer for Oscar Nominated Best Documentary RaMell Ross’ Hale County This Morning, This Evening. 

Born in Austin, Texas from Cuban and Nicaraguan parents, Sebastian was raised as a native Los Angeleno. He came to found MEMORY out of the experiences acquired producing Gia Coppola’s debut feature Palo Alto, and working during his formative years in Roman Coppola’s creative think tank The Directors Bureau: Special Projects and American Zoetrope.

For Six years Rae ran the Native Program at the Sundance Institute. She has sat on the Board of Trustees for the Sundance Institute and advised to such organizations as The Rockefeller Foundation, IFP, Film Independent, The Ford Foundation, The Tribeca Institute, and First Americans in the Arts. Rae is working with both her settler and indigenous heritage to deepen the dialogue of reconciliation and responsibility in the Americas.

Tracy is the co-founder of Longhouse Media, a non-profit focused on galvanizing Indigenous and local communities through film production and the founder of Indigenous Showcase. Since 2005, she has worked with over 50 tribal nations and helped train 3,000 young people. Tracy has received the National Association for Media Literacy Education Award, 2016 Stranger Genius Award, and the Horace Mann Award for her work in utilizing media for social justice. She is a Firelight Media Fellow, WGBH Producer Fellow, Sundance Institute Lab Fellow, and Tribeca All Access Grantee. Tracy’s first major museum installation opened in June 2018 at the Seattle Art Museum. Tracy serves as a Mize Foundation board member, Indigenous content programmer at the Seattle International Film Festival, and is in her second term as a Seattle Arts Commissioner. She is the mother of two young men.

Since it’s founding in 2014 MEMORY has produced and distributed award-winning fiction and non-fiction films, from first time filmmakers such as Celia Rowlson-Hall (Ma), Carson Mell (Another Evil), Dean Fleischer-Camp (Fraud), Theo Anthony (Rat Film), Leilah Weinraub (Shakedown), and Marnie Ellen Hertzler (Crestone) as well as having produced and hosted film-related events and performances such as Zia Anger’s My First Film and curatorial film programming featuring works by Robert Eggers, Pippa Bianco, Kahlil Joseph, Janicza Bravo, Romain Gavras, David Raboy, Ian Cheng, Chloé Galibert-Laîné, Kevin B. Lee, John Wilson, Jeron Braxton, Miko Revereza, Encyclopedia Pictura, OSK and RaMell Ross. These projects and programs have premiered in renowned international festivals and prestigious institutions such as Venice, Berlinale, IFFRotterdam, Locarno, TIFF, SXSW, True / False, SheffieldDoc Fest, MoMA PS1, Tate Modern, MOCA, Gavin Brown Enterprise, ICA London, Lincoln Center, the Harvard Film Archive, The Museum of Moving Image, Montreal’s Museum of Art New York’s Metrograph Theater, Phi Centre, and The Underground Museum.

Canadian born, Riel graduated from Montreal’s Concordia University with a Major in Economics and has participated in the Cannes Producer’s Network, the IFFRotterdam Lab and the Sundance Creative Producing Lab. His first feature film, The Wait was written & directed by M Blash and starring Jena Malone and Chloë Sevigny. 

Sathe is a 2011 Film Independent Producing Lab fellow and a 2013 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow. He has received fellowships from the HFPA, PGA, IFP, Film Independent and The Sundance Institute to name a few. He is a Film Independent Spirit Award (2015) nominee and a Gotham Award nominee (2014). In 2016, Sathe received the Cinereach Producer Award.

Sathe is a Trans Atlantic Partners Fellow (2013) and Cannes Producer’s Network Fellow (2014, 2015, 2016). He co-produced Partho Sen-gupta’s Arunoday (Sunrise), which premiered at the 2014 Busan International Film Festival, and Afia Nathaniel’s Dukhtar (Daughter), which premiered at 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and was Pakistan’s Official Submission for Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards®. Sathe’s feature directorial debut – Ek Hazarachi Note (1000 Rupee Note) – won the Special Jury Award and Centenary Award for Best Film at the 2014 International Film Festival of India and has received over 30 awards. Sathe produced Elisabeth Subrin’s A Woman, A Part which world-premiered at the 2016 International Film Festival Rotterdam and co-produced Eliza Hittman’s Beach Rats, a 2018 Sundance Film Festival award winner, Anthony Onah’s The Price which world-premiered at SXSW in 2017 and Michael Tully’s Don’t Leave Home which world premiered at SXSW in 2018. His latest productions are Bassam Jarbawi’s Screwdriver (Mafak), which premiered at Giornate Degli Autori in Venice, and Ritu Sarin & Tenzing Sonam’s The Sweet Requiem, which premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.

He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Senior Production Advisor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA) and Screenwriters Association – India (SWA).

In 2013 Parts & Labor combined with directors Lone Scherfig, Ole Christian Madsen, Dagur Kari, and Per Fly to found Creative Alliance:  an artist-led production company that creates features and series for Scandinavian and international audiences.

In 2017, Jay relocated the company to Los Angeles. While overseeing Parts & Labor operations, Jay joined Operam, a technology-driven entertainment marketing company, as an advisor. He has worked across Strategy, New Business and has overseen creative operations, including managing the integration of Operam’s Creative Studio with Media and Analytics.

Parts & Labor continues to maintain a diverse, original slate of features, series, digital shorts, and podcasts, many of which will go into production in 2019 and 2020. In production, they currently have Uncle Frank, written and to be directed by Alan Ball. They are in post-production on The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers’ second feature following The Witch.

Jay has been a keynote speaker at the Sundance Film Festival Producer’s Lunch, at the Sundance Producer Summit, and has been an advisor at the Sundance Creative Producer Lab for 10 years. In his capacity as an expert in entertainment marketing and in crowd behavior, he recently spoke at the 2018 Richemont’s Retreat for Maison’s Public Relations Executives in Paris.