Former Sundance Film Festival chief Tabitha Jackson has been named director of the New York Film Forum.
Mr. Jackson will assume the position on February 23rd. Mr. Jackson, an industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience in independent and nonprofit media, joins Film Forum following a two-year research fellowship at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and training at the Rockefeller Foundation.
Jackson has held the high-profile job as director of the Sundance Film Festival since 2020, and had to run the premiere indie gathering through two virtual editions as a concession to the coronavirus. She joined Sundance Institute in 2013 to direct the documentary film program. She resigned after serving as festival chief for two years. In 2022, she co-produced the podcast “The Film That Blew My Mind” with former Sundance festival president John Cooper. Jackson began his career as a researcher, producer and director at the BBC before moving to British broadcaster Channel4, where he was commissioning editor for arts, performance and animation, and executive producer of Film4.
“‘Independent, not-for-profit arthouse cinema’ – those four words encapsulate everything I have championed throughout my career. These words also describe my local movie theater, Film Forum, so this appointment feels like a homecoming,” Jackson said. “For 56 years, Film Forum has built a national and international reputation for bold curation, unparalleled repertoire programming, passionate audiences, and legendary banana bread.”
“I am honored to step into the world built by my predecessors Karen Cooper and Sonya Chan, artistic directors Bruce Goldstein and Mike Maggiore, managing director Chad Bolton, and the rest of the incredible Film Forum staff and board. And I’m honored to lead this important space into its next chapter, because Film Forum is a place where art becomes civil life – a place where films can start conversations, change our perspectives, or simply remind us that we are not alone in the dark.
Film Forum was founded in 1970 and operates as an independent, nonprofit arthouse venue with four screens in downtown Manhattan. The movie theater is open seven days a week and has an annual attendance of approximately 225,000 people. Longtime chief Karen Cooper stepped down from the board in 2023 after 50 years in the role. She was replaced by Sonya Chan, who stepped down two years later. Film Forum board president Gray Coleman and human resources expert Stella Strazdas led the national search for the company’s next director.
“After a search process that included a number of highly qualified candidates, our board and staff quickly reached a strong consensus regarding Tabitha, which is not surprising given her passion for film and strong management history in the nonprofit arts sector,” Coleman said. “Additionally, she is a longtime Greenwich Village resident and has attended screenings and events at Film Forum for years. My board colleagues and I look forward to watching Tabitha uphold our mission and expand our reach for years to come.”
