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Sydney Levine
President, Film Finders, Inc. (U.S.A.)
Levine has over twenty five years' experience in the entertainment industry. Before inventing FILM FINDERS in 1988, she was the first woman in international film distribution in 1975 with 20th Century Fox, serving in Amsterdam, a pioneering acquisitions executive for Lorimar, and later Vice President of Acquisitions for the newly starting up Republic Pictures. She brought to U.S. screens many successful high profile films such as ‘My Beautiful Launderette’, 'Letter to Brezhnev' and ‘Tampopo’. She founded Film Finders in 1988 as a way to track acquisitions project data on computer/ database and internet for acquisitions executives. It has since become an industry and world standard in its quality of information and widespread use. Its brand is one of the most respected in the international independent film business. She and her partner Peter Belsito also consult with producers needing to plan festival and sales strategies and to service national film entities, distributors, international sales agents and festivals programmers. Film Finders is the official partner of the Cannes Film Market and official sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival. In 2006 Film Finders merged with Withoutabox.
In 2006 Ms. Levine designed an online course in international film business for UCLA Extension Business School which is now in its second year. She has taught courses in international film distribution at the New School for Social Research in New York and for the last fourteen years has been involved in professional education with young filmmakers via countless initiatives with festival and market panels and forums and active course involvement with such institutions including the Binger FilmLab of Amsterdam, Talent Campus of the Berlin Film Festival, The Shorts Corner of the Cannes Market, Mesas de Negocias of Chile, Toronto International Film Festival, Rotterdam Cinemart, IFP New York, FILM Independent of Los Angeles etc.
Levine's educational background includes a Master's of Science Degree from the University of Southern California, a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of California and a License from the Sorbonne University of Paris. She is fluent in several languages and travels extensively on the international film market circuit. |
