Screen Producers Australia is proud to announce Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA award winning producer, Donna Gigliotti as the very special guest Keynote at SCREEN FOREVER 2017.
Gigliotti is one of only nine women to win an Academy Award for Best Picture and her career has traversed a rich and masterful scope of productions. Beginning her career in the screen industry as an assistant to Martin Scorsese on Raging Bull, her trajectory has been bold and unstoppable with her most recent triumph in the Oscar nominated film, Hidden Figures. The film, the untold story of the African American women behind the technological revolution at NASA, grossed $230 million worldwide and inspired a global conversation about women, STEM and representation in film.
The hallmark of Gigliotti’s career has been her rare and innate ability to retrieve stories that have resonance and cultural impact punctuated by commercial and artistic success.
Securing the 1998 best-picture Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, the film also earned the 1999 Golden Globe for Best Picture/Comedy and the 1999 British Academy Award (BAFTA). In 2009, Gigliotti was nominated again for Best Picture for producing The Reader which was nominated for a total of five Academy Awards. In 2013, she received a Best Picture/Academy Award nomination for Silver Linings Playbook.
“Donna Gigliotti’s exceptional career as an award-winning producer of iconic films that have changed that conversation on and off screen has given her the much-deserved position of role model the industry. She is a visionary, collaborative producer and champion of female voices in screen, with an extraordinary eye for talent and story that is contributing to the changing cultural narrative. Screen Producers Australia welcomes Donna and her outstanding influence on the entertainment industry at SCREEN FOREVER,” said Screen Producers Australia CEO, Matt Deaner.
Gigliotti’s career began as an executive in 1982 as vice president/acquisitions at United Artists Classics. Throughout her career, she has held various executive positions including President of Production for Barry Diller’s USA Films and Executive Vice President at Miramax Films. Since 2001 Gigliotti has worked principally as an independent producer for her own production company Tempesta Films, based in New York. Her recent credits include Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation and The Fundamentals of Caring starring Paul Rudd.
In 1985, Gigliotti became the youngest woman knighted to the rank of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, the European Film Academy and the Producers Guild of America, of which she is a member of the National Board of Representatives.
Donna Gigliotti will feature at the SCREEN FOREVER conference in a very special In Conversation Keynote session with leading Australian film and media journalist Sandy George on Thursday the 16th November 2017.