Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018

Noon - 1:00 PM

Session II: Guerin A, in Herscher Hall, Live Webcast

The DealMaking Process: From Feature Film, Reality TV & Specials to Web Series and Indie Film Making

Kenny Christmas, EVP of Business and Legal Affairs, MarVista

Andrew Sugerman, Producer, “Conviction,” “Any Day,” “The Divide,” “Prozac Nation,” and Exec. Produced, “Shopgirl”

Justin Hochberg, CEO, Just Entertainment

Todd Garner, Founder & CEO, Broken Road Productions (Producer/ExecProducer, Black Hawk Down, Daddy Day Care, Con Air, 13 Going on 30)

T.J. BARRACK, Founding Partner, Adaptive Studios

Linda Benjamin, COO & Head of Business Affairs, Covert Media, Moderator

T.J. Barrack, Founding Partner, Adaptive Studios: T.J. Barrack is a co-founder at Adaptive Studios and oversees the publishing and digital arms of the business. Barrack brings an experienced background in producing having served as one of the executive producers on the highly acclaimed, Emmy® nominated Project Greenlight as well as Adaptive’s young adult feature film Coin Heist, which debuted on Netflix, marking it the first successful conversion from script to novel to feature film for the studio. Founded in 2012, Adaptive is an

entertainment studio with a vast library of owned IP that develops and produces original stories. Adaptive reimagines and revitalizes abandoned IP from the Hollywood system through films, television, digital entertainment and books – focusing on the platform that best fits the story. Prior to co-founding Adaptive, Barrack was Operations Director for Miramax from 2010-2012 and President of independent film production company, Little House Productions, from 2004-2009. At Little House Productions, he produced multiple award winning documentary feature films in the action sports world. TJ began his professional career in private equity, working for Los Angeles based firm Colony Capital. He is a California native and graduated from the University of Southern California in 2001 with a BA in English.

Kenny Christmas serves as EVP of Business and Legal Affairs at MarVista Entertainment.  A former Lionsgate executive, Christmas currently oversees the negotiating and shaping of business transactions in the areas of development, production, finance and distribution of television and film.   Prior to MarVista, he was responsible for driving the expansion strategy for the cosmetic line at The Tyra Banks Company.  Christmas also held senior positions at Edmonds Entertainment, and was partner in Vincent D’Onofrio’s (star of Law & Order: Criminal Intent) Brooklyn Hazelhurst Productions.  Additionally, he was D’Onofrio’s talent manager. Christmas began his career at the law firms of O’Melveny and Myers and subsequently Hansen, Jacobsen, et. al.

Linda Benjamin, COO & Head of Business Affairs, Covert Media: Before joining independent feature production, financing, and distribution company Covert Media as COO and Head of Business Affairs, Linda was the Executive Vice President of Business Affairs at Relativity Media for six years where she was a critical contributor to some of Relativity’s most significant and complex film and television deals, including its groundbreaking ventures in China and India, output partnerships, expansive music library, and international co-productions. Linda joined Relativity in 2008 and in her time with the company was involved with films such asLimitless, The Fighter, Act of Valor, Dear John, and the long-running TV series “Catfish” based on the movie of the same name. Prior to Relativity, Linda was Head of Business Affairs & Operations for Intermedia US where she oversaw sales, business affairs, and film financing for the studio working on high level projects including Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, The Aviator, The Quiet American and The Hunting Party. Benjamin's accomplishments include: designing brand expansion while maintaining strong cost controls for an iconic children’s brand; closing of over $1 Billion in entertainment transactions; incubating and leading an acclaimed web-based social benefit enterprise, and launching branding, restructuring, and growth initiatives.

Andrew Sugerman, Producer, “Conviction,” “Any Day,” “The Divide,” “Prozac Nation,” and Exec. Produced, “Shopgirl.”: Andrew Sugerman has been involved in the production of a diverse range of motion pictures as a producer over the past thirty years. His own production, “Conviction,” based on a true story, starring Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell and Minnie Driver, directed by Tony Goldwyn, was released in October 2010 by Fox Searchlight and received many awards and critical praise. He is producer of the feature film, “Any Day,” released in May, 2015, directed by Rustam Branaman, starring Sean Bean, Eva Longoria, Tom Arnold and Kate Walsh. Mr. Sugerman was recently co-executive producer of the one-hour drama series, “The Divide,” for AMC Studios and WEtv, with the pilot written by Richard LaGravenese and directed by Tony Goldwyn, which premiered in July, 2014. He executive produced the 2011 release, “Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer,” based on the best-selling children’s book series and starring Heather Graham, directed by John Schultz. Recently completed, for release in 2013 is “Crazy Kind of Love,” which he executive produced, starring Virginia Madsen, Anthony LaPaglia, Zach Gilford and Eva Longoria, directed by Sarah Siegel-Magness. Over the last few years he executive produced “Death Sentence”, starring Kevin Bacon, directed by James Wan, released by Twentieth Century Fox, and the thriller “Premonition” with Sandra Bullock, which was a highly successful release from Sony Tristar. He also executive 2 produced “Shopgirl,” which has been released by Disney, starring Steve Martin, Claire Danes and Jason Schwartzman, directed by Anand Tucker, as well as the comedy “Grilled” for New Line Cinema, starring Ray Romano and Kevin James, directed by Jason Ensler. In 2006 he executive produced the hit family road-trip comedy “Johnson Family Vacation” starring Cedric the Entertainer, Vanessa Williams and Bow Wow, for Fox Searchlight. Mr. Sugerman produced Walter Hill’s boxing drama “Undisputed,” starring Wesley Snipes, Ving Rhames and Peter Falk, released by Miramax. He also produced the comedy “Boat Trip,” starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Roger Moore, Vivica A. Fox and Will Ferrell, released by Artisan. He served as line producer on the caper comedy “The Whole Ten Yards,” starring Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet, directed by Howard Deutch, released by Warner Bros, which followed the action-thriller “Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever,” starring Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu, directed by Kaos, also from Warners. He also line produced the drama “Prozac Nation,” based on the Elizabeth Wurtzel novel, starring Christina Ricci, Jessica Lange, Anne Heche, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Jason Biggs, directed by Erik Skoldbjaerg, released by Miramax. Mr. Sugerman’s extensive line producing credits also include “The Prophet’s Game,” starring Dennis Hopper, Stephanie Zimbalist and Sondra Locke; “Kimberly,” starring Gabrielle Anwar, Sean Astin, Molly Ringwald, Patty Duke and Lainie Kazan; “The Sterling Chase,” starring Alanna Ubach, Jack Noseworthy and Nicholle Tom; “Michael Angel” starring Dennis Hopper and Richard Greico, “Blue Motel,” starring Sean Young, Soleil Moon Frye and Robert Vaughn; and “Spiders” starring Lana Perillo and Josh Green. He also executive produced “Love Kills,” starring Mario Van Peebles, Leslie Ann Warren, Daniel Baldwin and Louise Fletcher. As a producer and executive producer, Mr. Sugerman’s credits also include “McCinsey’s Island,” “Mercy Street,” “Somebody Is Waiting,” “Savate,” “Spilt Milk” and “Deadly Rivals,” among others. Additionally an accomplished director and writer, Mr. Sugerman shared the writing credit for the story of the NBC Family Special, “A Place at the Table,” starring Danny Glover and Lukas Haas; and he directed the feature film comedy “Basic Training,” starring Ann Dusenberry and Marty Brill. 3 His television credits include producing the movie thriller, “Payoff,” starring Keith Carradine and Harry Dean Stanton, for Showtime; and the feature comedy “Working Trash,” starring Ben Stiller and George Carlin, directed by Alan Metter, for Fox Network. Further TV credits include executive producing the special “The Bulkin Trail,” starring David Hasselhoff, and producing and directing “The Hayburners.” He also produced and directed “Mandy’s Grandmother,” starring Maureen O’Sullivan, which was released theatrically and garnered an Academy Award nomination. Mr. Sugerman is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Producers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America.

Justin Hochberg is the founder of Just Entertainment Inc. a Television and new media studio focusing on branded entertainment and reality TV with projects at half a dozen US networks and working with fortune 500 brands and digital agencies. Over the course of Hochberg's career he created and sold over 40 TV series and completed more than $112 million in product integration deals with broadcast and cable networks and over 150 of the world's leading brands including P&G, the NFL, Pepsi, Sports Illustrated, Royal Caribbean, Marquis Jet, Staples, DirecTV, Planet Hollywood Resorts, Fosters, Las Vegas Convention Visitors Bureau, Dick Clark's “Rockin New Years Eve”, Skype, Ask.com, Camping World, , Deutsch Advertising, NYC 2012, the N.Y.P.D., and Tony Winner “Kinky Boots”. Hochberg made TV headlines recently for guiding four different cable networks into reality programming for their first time, brokering over 20 different branding deals on them. Among them USA Network's first reality series, “The Moment”, hosted by Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner and TNT's "The Great  Escape", an action-packed program Hochberg created and produced with Hollywood greats Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Bertram van Munster. In addition, this past summer he launched “Race to the Scene,” a movie themed competition series for the Reelz Channel hosted by Dolph Lundgren, which Hochberg engineered the sale of to a dozen countries before its US premiere, followed by CNBC's new #1 rated show, “The Profit”. Hochberg was recently nominated for the Critic's Choice Award for Best Reality Series and Real Screen's Best Documentary, and has been recognized as Hollywood Reporter's “50 Most Powerful Reality Producers”. Prior to entering the television industry, Hochberg served as Microsoft Corporation's Director of Business Development for Interactive TV, before becoming the company's Head of Business Development for its Digital Media TV efforts.

Todd Garner, the head of Broken Road Productions, is a veteran producer and Hollywood creative  executive with a unique gift for creating and nurturing mainstream, commercial motion pictures. In  various capacities throughout his career, Garner has developed, overseen, executive produced or  produced well over 170 movies, many of them major hits for their respective studios. Formerly a  founding partner of Revolution Studios and before that co-head of production at Walt Disney  Studios, Garner founded Broken Road Productions in summer 2005. In the last thirteen years,  Broken Road has produced eighteen movies and counting.  Broken Road just released two movies on Netflix: NAKED starring Marlon Wayans & Regina Hall,  and TRUE MEMOIRS OF AN INTERNATIONAL ASSASSIN starring Kevin James.  Currently in post-production are CADAVER for Screen Gems starring Shay Mitchell & Stana Katic,  ISN’T IT ROMANTIC for New Line starring Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam DeVine, &  Priyanka Chopra, TAG also for New Line starring Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Jake  Johnson, Hannibal Buress, & Isla Fisher, and HAUNT at Sierra/Affinity starring Katie Stevens, Will  Brittain, and Lauryn Alisa McCain. Movies in pre-production are HUMMINGBIRD at  Fundamental Films starring Milla Jovovich, MORTAL KOMBAT at New Line with James Wan  producing, SENIOR YEAR at CBS Films, and 1974 for Tooley Films with Eli Roth producing.  Todd was Executive Producer on films such as XXX, ANGER MANAGEMENT and 13 GOING  ON 30. After producing the runaway hit PAUL BLART: MALL COP and it’s SEQUEL, which  combined grossed over $290 million in worldwide box office, Broken Road produced KNIGHT  AND DAY for Fox grossing over $261 million worldwide, MGM’s & Sony’s ZOOKEEPER which  grossed $170 million, and INTO THE STORM for New Line, which grossed over $161 million in  worldwide box office. Garner joined Revolution as a partner in May 2000. He was responsible for  overseeing all aspects of development and production for the company’s motion pictures during its  remarkable first five years. Garner oversaw such hit Revolution films as BLACK HAWK DOWN,  PUNCH DRUNK LOVE and HELLBOY.