Part of Filmmaker Programming
Online FilmHouse Talk: Artist Development Chat with Anne Lai & Lauren McBride
Description
Join us for an online conversation about non-profit artist support and development programs between SFFILM’s new Director of Artist Development Lauren McBride and Executive Director Anne. Lai and McBride will discuss their varied careers and how they came to love artist development work and join SFFILM, share what excites them right now about SFFILM Makers, and discuss how the program will continue to support the next generation of filmmakers. The two will share insights, stories, and welcome questions from the audience. We hope you can make it!
WITH SUPPORT FROM
Anne Lai is the Executive Director of SFFILM. Prior to joining SFFILM, she was Director of Creative Producing and Artist Support at Sundance Institute, where she focused on discovering and nurturing emerging independent producers, screenwriters, and directors through their first or second feature films. She launched and led the Institute’s first lab dedicated to producers, re-imagined an annual summer convening of filmmakers and industry known as the Creative Producing Summit, and tailored creative and strategic support for filmmakers coming out of the renowned Directors, Screenwriters, and Creative Producing Labs year-round. Additionally, Lai led curation of fiction features for Sundance Institute’s Catalyst Forum, a gathering that connects potential investors to films at a pivotal moment in their financing launch, and oversaw the Institute’s first Asian American Fellowship for screenwriters. Most recently, she helped design and oversaw Talent Forum, a three-day program during the Sundance Film Festival that provides a curated group of Institute-supported projects access to with industry, advocates, and community to move their projects forward.
Lauren McBride is the Director of Artist Development at SFFILM. She is an independent film producer, consultant, and operations specialist based in Oakland, CA who has built a career at the intersection of technology and entertainment. Her career started in consulting and operations management, which led to a role as a Program Manager at Google. During her career at Google, her work spanned key product areas, including YouTube Originals, where she supported the development of original content for YouTube. A regular consultant for filmmakers on the development of their projects, McBride was also a 2017 Sundance Creative Producing Lab Fellow and a 2018 Film Independent Producing Lab Fellow. She produced Tayarisha Poe’s feature film Selah and the Spades, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was released this summer by Amazon Studios. She is also producing an episodic series based on the film that is currently in development at Amazon.