March 30, 2021
Join us as Dickinson alumna Rena Ronson shares her inspiring career path in film production and offers a Q&A.
Students also have the chance to hear from one of UTA’s college recruiters regarding career opportunities at United Talent Agency.
Tuesday, March 30 | 12:15 p.m. EDT
Click here for Zoom link
This event is part of Industry Immersion Series: Sports & Entertainment. A full listing of events can be found on Handshake.
Rena will share her career in film production and offer a Q&A, and students will also have the chance to hear from a recruiter about UTA's career opportunities.
Rena Ronson '83
Partner, Co-Head of UTA Independent Film Group
Rena Ronson is Partner and Co-Head of UTA Independent Film Group at leading global talent and entertainment company UTA. One of the industry’s pre-eminent packaging and finance executives, Ronson specializes in global film finance, distribution and marketing strategies for independent and co-financed features, helping the world’s most acclaimed independent filmmakers see their work reach global audiences.
Ronson oversees a group of agents known for packaging and representing many high-profile, critically acclaimed and independently-financed films from a diverse range of American and international filmmakers, including Greta Gerwig, Asghar Farhadi, Craig Gillespie, Noah Baumbach, Michael Showalter, Marielle Heller, Haifaa Al-Mansour, Mike Mills, and Ted Melfi, among others.
Throughout her career, Ronson has been involved in numerous productions and co-productions. She has packaged, structured financing for, and sold top-tier films including Oscar-winning features I, Tonya, Room, and Icarus, and Oscar-nominated movies A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Hidden Figures, Lady Bird, The Big Sick and Call Me by Your Name. She is also known for working with acclaimed filmmakers on their feature directorial debuts, including Marielle Heller’s Diary of a Teenage Girl; Scott Burns’ The Report; Crystal Moselle's Skate Kitchen; Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird; Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman; Haifaa Al Mansour's Wadjda; Jill Soloway’s Afternoon Delight; Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead; and Jonas Cuaron’s Desierto.
At the recent Sundance Film Festival, Ronson and her team generated over $57 million in deals, including the record-breaking sale of Max Barbakow’s Palm Springs to Hulu /NEON; Alan Ball’s Uncle Frank to Amazon; Florian Zeller’s The Father to Sony Pictures Classics; Dominic Cooke’s Ironbark to Roadside Attractions; Miranda July’s Kajillionare to Focus Features; Josephine Decker’s Shirley to Neon; and Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick’s documentary On The Record to HBO Max. Previous productions and festival deals she worked on include Scott Burns’ The Report to Amazon; Lulu Wang’s The Farewell to A24; Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman to Focus Features; and Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield to Fox Searchlight.
Most recently, Ronson closed a $20M deal with Netflix for the Ted Melfi feature, The Starling, starring Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, and Kevin Kline.
Ronson is also a strong advocate of female voices and diverse storytelling. Most recently, she worked on Miranda July’s Kajillionaire; Haifaa Al-Mansour’s The Perfect Candidate; Anne Fletcher’s Dumplin’; Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s feature documentary Athlete A; Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick’s On the Record; and Crystal Moselle’s Skate Kitchen, which will premiere this spring on HBO as a television series, among others. Additionally, she is a supporter of the growing documentary business and has expanded UTA’s reach exponentially. She has been involved in several impactful documentaries including Jon Chester’s critically-acclaimed The Biggest Little Farm, which she sold to Neon.
Prior to joining UTA in 2009, Ronson was co-head of William Morris Independent, where she helped create the first global film finance division at a major talent agency. Before becoming an agent, Ronson was a veteran sales and distribution executive. She helped establish and ran Lakeshore International, a division of Lakeshore Entertainment, after leading its acquisition of the TransAtlantic Film Library, where she had previously worked.
Ronson is a perennial fixture on annual lists of the top women in filmmaking, including The Hollywood Reporter’s “Women in Entertainment Power 100” and Variety’s “Women’s Impact Report.” She proudly serves on the Women in Film (WIF) organization’s Board of Directors and as an Ambassador for its Reframe initiative, aiming to elevate and empower women in the entertainment industry. In 2008, she was honored by WIF with its “Business Leadership Award.” Ronson was one of the original members of the Time’s Up Movement, and she has been a panelist and guest speaker at USC, UCLA, the Produced By Conference, Cannes, and Winston Baker, as well as a Sundance Labs Advisor. In 2006, she received “The Independent Hero Award” from the Creative Coalition.
Further information
- Location: Online
- Time: 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
- Cost: Free