Creative Producers: Best Practices for Pitching with Peter Saraf (LOVING), Mary Jane Skalski (AMERICAN ANIMALS), and Josh Penn (MONSTERS AND MEN)

Josh Penn is a producer with the Department of Motion Pictures. He produced Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, the Caméra d'Or at Cannes, and was nominated for four Academy Awards (including Best Picture). He has also held producing roles on Patti Cake$ (Sundance 2017), Western (Sundance 2015 Special Jury Prize Winner), The Great Invisible (SXSW 2014 Grand Jury Prize Winner,) and Contemporary Color among other films. Josh premiered two projects at Sundance 2018: Monsters and Men (Special Jury Prize for Outstanding First Feature) and the live documentary A Thousand Thoughts. 

Mary Jane Skalski began her career at Good Machine where she worked on the early films of Ang Lee, Ed Burns and Nicole Holofcener. As a producer, her credits include four films with director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor, Win Win, and The Cobbler); Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin, Wilson directed by Craig Johnson, Todd Louiso's Hello I Must Be Going, Adam Salky’s Dare, Peter Callahan’s Against the Current, Julian Goldberger’s The Hawk is Dying, Jem Cohen’s Chain, and Naomi Foner’s Very Good Girls. Mary Jane was an executive producer on Pariah, Trick, and Putzel. Her most recent film is Bart Layton’s narrative debut, American Animals which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and will open later this year.

Peter Saraf’s producing credits include Loving, Three Generations, The Kings of Summer, Me Him Her, Safety Not Guaranteed, Our Idiot Brother, Jack Goes Boating, Sunshine Cleaning, Away We Go, Is Anybody There?, Little Miss Sunshine, Everything Is Illuminated, The Truth About Charlie, Adaptation, Ulee’s Gold and the feature documentaries Mandela and The Agronomist. He has been nominated for Academy and Golden Globe Awards and has won multiple awards including the Spirit, Gotham, and PGA Awards. He is the co-founder of Big Beach, a NewYork-based independent film production and financing company.