Teddy Schwarzman

Teddy Schwarzman is a media entrepreneur and two-time Academy Award® nominee who serves as CEO of Black Bear, one of the world’s leading independent studios. Schwarzman founded Black Bear in 2011 as a U.S. film production and financing company. Since then, he has grown it into a multifaceted media leader that produces, finances, distributes, and licenses acclaimed films and television series around the world. Black Bear has offices in Santa Monica and London, in addition to Canada-based subsidiary Elevation Pictures, the territory’s top independent distributor. Guiding creative and strategic direction, Schwarzman has been the driving force behind the production of over forty-five films and the release of close to 800 titles in the US, UK, and Canada. He personally earned Academy Award® nominations for Best Picture for Train Dreams and The Imitation Game, with other credits including Sing Sing, Nyad, Mudbound, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Dumb Money, I Care a Lot, Longlegs, and more. As a distributor, Schwarzman’s Black Bear has also been behind the territorial releases of such culturally impactful and commercially successful films as Conclave, The Brutalist, Anora, and Marty Supreme.A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and Producers Guild of America, Schwarzman sits on the Board of Directors of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, BAFTA North America, and the Gotham Film Institute, the Leadership Cabinet of Cedars-Sinai’s Board of Governors, and is an honorary Board of Visitors member of Duke University.