Paul Federbush
- Additional Crew
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Paul Federbush is a media consultant with over 25 years experience in the domestic US market as well as a specialization in established and emerging international markets. Spanning both commercial and non-profit sectors of the film industry, he has fostered a holistic understanding of the artistic process of the filmmaker, layered with the perspective of the sales and distribution realities of the marketplace from his career as a production and acquisition executive.
In his position as the International Director at Sundance Institute, Federbush was responsible for exporting the Institute's venerable Screenwriters Lab to countries and regions around the world under-served by artist development programs. He, and his team, in partnership with various in-country organizations, identified filmmakers to participate in immersive five-day programs designed to elevate the craft of screenwriting with an intense focus on the development of their current project. Commitment to these filmmakers continued post-Lab with individual creative and strategic support shepherding the filmmakers through further script development, and facilitating introductions to producers, sales agents and financiers, as well as creative advice during the editorial process as well as festival, distribution and sales strategies. In this position, he mentored scores of emerging filmmakers through various stages of the filmmaking process, including four of the five Best International Film nominees of the 2015 Academy Awards®.
Midway through his tenure, Sundance Institute launched an organizational restructuring, and Federbush was charged with devising and implementing an international strategy encompassing the entirety of Institute's artist development programs, including Documentary, Episodic, New Frontier (emerging media such as AR/VR), and Film Music. During his eight year tenure at Sundance, Federbush teamed with various colleagues, managed 25 regional organizational partnerships in order to plan and execute over 40 artist development programs in 16 countries, including India, Cuba, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, and Lebanon, among others.
Prior to Sundance, Federbush was a founding partner of a boutique specialized theatrical distribution company, Red Flag Releasing (RFR), with the mandate of working on the forefront of day & date theatrical/digital distribution. With an ancillary digital distribution deal through Warner Bros. and his film acquisition background, he acquired, marketed and distributed 10 fiction and documentary films including We Were Here (David Weisman, documentary, shortlisted for Academy Award® in 2011), The Green Wave (Ali Samadi Ahadi, documentary) and Norwegian Wood (Tran Anh Hung's feature film based on the Haruki Murakami novel). They also enabled Fox and Warner Bros., to experiment in this new distribution space by handling the marketing and theatrical distribution of the Duplass Brothers The Do-Deca Pentathalon, and Reed Cowan's documentary, 8:The Mormon Proposition, for Fox and Warners, respectively.
Prior to forming Red Flag Releasing, Federbush served as Senior Vice President of Production and Acquisitions at Warner Bros' specialized division, Warner Independent Pictures. There, he oversaw the development, production and acquisitions of a slate of films including Academy Award-winning and nominated films Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle), March of the Penguins (Luc Jaquet), Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney), Before Sunset and A Scanner Darkly (Rick Linklater) and Paradise Now (Hany Abu-Assad). He also served as production executive on the first official US/Chinese co-production, The Painted Veil (John Curran).
In the years prior to Warner Independent, Federbush served as Vice President of Acquisitions and Co-Production at the foreign sales company Pandora where he worked on Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko, among others; and as Vice President of Acquisitions at New Line Cinema and Fine Line Features where he acquired over 15 titles including The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan), Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier), Gummo (Harmony Korine), The Filth & the Fury (Julien Temple) and Crash (David Cronenberg). He began his career as a production executive on an iteration of New Line Cinema's ancillary franchise, Poison Ivy.
In his position as the International Director at Sundance Institute, Federbush was responsible for exporting the Institute's venerable Screenwriters Lab to countries and regions around the world under-served by artist development programs. He, and his team, in partnership with various in-country organizations, identified filmmakers to participate in immersive five-day programs designed to elevate the craft of screenwriting with an intense focus on the development of their current project. Commitment to these filmmakers continued post-Lab with individual creative and strategic support shepherding the filmmakers through further script development, and facilitating introductions to producers, sales agents and financiers, as well as creative advice during the editorial process as well as festival, distribution and sales strategies. In this position, he mentored scores of emerging filmmakers through various stages of the filmmaking process, including four of the five Best International Film nominees of the 2015 Academy Awards®.
Midway through his tenure, Sundance Institute launched an organizational restructuring, and Federbush was charged with devising and implementing an international strategy encompassing the entirety of Institute's artist development programs, including Documentary, Episodic, New Frontier (emerging media such as AR/VR), and Film Music. During his eight year tenure at Sundance, Federbush teamed with various colleagues, managed 25 regional organizational partnerships in order to plan and execute over 40 artist development programs in 16 countries, including India, Cuba, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, and Lebanon, among others.
Prior to Sundance, Federbush was a founding partner of a boutique specialized theatrical distribution company, Red Flag Releasing (RFR), with the mandate of working on the forefront of day & date theatrical/digital distribution. With an ancillary digital distribution deal through Warner Bros. and his film acquisition background, he acquired, marketed and distributed 10 fiction and documentary films including We Were Here (David Weisman, documentary, shortlisted for Academy Award® in 2011), The Green Wave (Ali Samadi Ahadi, documentary) and Norwegian Wood (Tran Anh Hung's feature film based on the Haruki Murakami novel). They also enabled Fox and Warner Bros., to experiment in this new distribution space by handling the marketing and theatrical distribution of the Duplass Brothers The Do-Deca Pentathalon, and Reed Cowan's documentary, 8:The Mormon Proposition, for Fox and Warners, respectively.
Prior to forming Red Flag Releasing, Federbush served as Senior Vice President of Production and Acquisitions at Warner Bros' specialized division, Warner Independent Pictures. There, he oversaw the development, production and acquisitions of a slate of films including Academy Award-winning and nominated films Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle), March of the Penguins (Luc Jaquet), Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney), Before Sunset and A Scanner Darkly (Rick Linklater) and Paradise Now (Hany Abu-Assad). He also served as production executive on the first official US/Chinese co-production, The Painted Veil (John Curran).
In the years prior to Warner Independent, Federbush served as Vice President of Acquisitions and Co-Production at the foreign sales company Pandora where he worked on Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko, among others; and as Vice President of Acquisitions at New Line Cinema and Fine Line Features where he acquired over 15 titles including The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan), Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier), Gummo (Harmony Korine), The Filth & the Fury (Julien Temple) and Crash (David Cronenberg). He began his career as a production executive on an iteration of New Line Cinema's ancillary franchise, Poison Ivy.
