Producers Mollye Asher (“The Rider”), Mynette Louie (“The Tale”) and Derek Nguyen (director of “The Housemaid”) announced the launch of a new production company on Tuesday called The Population.
The group will focus on producing film and TV projects by or about women, people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community and other underrepresented groups. Producer Mary Jane Skalski will serve as senior advisor to The Population.
The Population will also premiere the film “I Carry You With Me (Te Llevo Conmigo)” by director Heidi Ewing at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and is in post-production on Josef Kubota Wladyka’s “Catch the Fair One.” The Population also has several other projects in development including a feminist horror film based on a true survival story in Mexico and a true-crime series set among the Asian American and working-class communities in Detroit.
This past Saturday, Asher won the Producers Award from the Film Independent Spirit Awards along with an unrestricted grant of $25,000. Together, however, the three producers have worked with more than 75 directors and thirty feature films that have played at Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Toronto and Venice.
“Our hope with The Population is to help build a more equitable film and television industry,” Louie said in a statement. “While so many companies seem to regard ‘diversity’ as the latest trend to capitalize on, Mollye, Derek, and I have been telling these kinds of stories for our entire careers. As members of underrepresented groups, and coming from working-class families as well, we’ve noticed how fortune favors the privileged in our industry. So we decided to gather the collective experience and connections we’ve built to keep enabling stories by or about people from marginalized groups. Our goal is to change the status quo of who gets to make movies, and who gets to ultimately influence society and culture.”
Louie’s credits include Jennifer Fox’s Emmy-nominated “The Tale” starring Laura Dern, which premiered at Sundance and was acquired by HBO. She’s also credited on Aaron Katz’s “Gemini” and Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ “Swallow.” Louie previously ran Gamechanger Films, which helped finance “The Invitation,” “Buster’s Mal Heart” and “Lovesong.”
Asher produced Chloe Zhao’s acclaimed “The Rider” and has also produced “Swallow,” “Fort Tilden,” “She’s Lost Control” and Zhao’s “Songs My Brothers Taught Me.” She’s currently in post-production on “Nomadland” starring Frances McDormand for Fox Searchlight.
Nguyen is the writer and director of “The Housemaid,” which was released by IFC Films in 2018, and he’ll also produce an upcoming American remake of the film currently being written by Geoffrey Fletcher. He’s also producing “Secret Sky” written by Abdi Nazemian and Micah Schraft.
15 Biggest Box Office Hits That Premiered at Sundance, From 'The Blair Witch Project' to 'Get Out' (Photos)
Sundance is the biggest market for indie films around, and for good reason. The festival has a history of finding the quirky, independent crowd-pleaser that goes on to be a box office smash. 2020 saw a record sale of $17.5 million for the Andy Samberg comedy "Palm Springs," which proved to be one of Hulu's biggest movies ever. And while some films fizzle at the box office despite their festival hype, many more manage to sustain that buzz all the way until Oscar season. Here are a few that made a splash at both Park City and for wide audiences. All box office figures are domestic numbers.
15. "A Walk in the Woods" (2015) - $29.5 million • It should come as no surprise that Robert Redford premiered a movie he starred in at his own festival. But he also proved that he still carries some box office clout.
Broad Green Pictures
14. "(500) Days of Summer" (2009) - $35.9 million • Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel starred in this inventive indie rom-com from director Marc Webb that Fox Searchlight distributed to make it one of the sleeper indie hits of the summer of 2009.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
13. "In the Bedroom" (2001) - $35.9 million • "In the Bedroom" was the first film to ever score a Best Picture Oscar nomination after making its premiere at Sundance, and its four additional nominations -- including for Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson and Marisa Tomei -- were the most received by any Sundance film until the release of "Precious" in 2009.
Miramax
12. "Brooklyn" (2015) - $38.3 million • The period-piece romance starring Saoirse Ronan as an Irish immigrant to New York wowed audiences and buyers, with another heated bidding war ensuing that ultimately went to Fox Searchlight for $9 million.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
11. "The Big Sick" (2017) - $42.8 million • Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon's debut screenplay about their own romance sparked a bidding war among buyers, eventually landing with Amazon for $12 million, which was only the second-highest acquisition of that year behind Netflix's pickup of "Mudbound."
Lionsgate/Amazon
10. "Hereditary" (2018) - $44.1 million • The biggest box office hit of Sundance 2018 was a midnight screening picked up by A24. "Hereditary" earned acclaim from critics and audiences alike for its disturbing portrayal of grief and its destructive power, and was declared by many to be the finest performance of Toni Collette's career.
A24
9. "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004) - $44.5 million • The deadpan, oddball comedy "Napoleon Dynamite" made a star out of Jon Heder and went on to become a cult hit as well as a big success, considering its minuscule budget of just $400,000.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
8. "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire" (2009) - $47.6 million • Lee Daniels' heart-wrenching film "Precious" made such waves at Sundance that Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey announced that they would be leading the film's marketing, jumping on board as executive producers. It made Gabourey Sidibe a star and Mo'Nique an Oscar winner for her fiery performance as Precious' cruel mother.
Lionsgate Films
7. "Manchester by the Sea" (2016) - $47.7 million • Amazon paid a whopping $10 million for the rights to release Kenneth Lonergan's "Manchester by the Sea." It went on to make the company a major player on the indie festival scene and even netted an Oscar win for Lonergan and its male lead, Casey Affleck.
Amazon
6. "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994) - $52.7 million • This beloved comedy with Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell was made quickly and cheaply. With $245.7 million worldwide, it was the highest grossing British film in history at the time of its release.
Gramercy
5. "Saw" (2004) - $55.2 million • It's hard to believe that a movie that has spawned a half-dozen sequels actually made its premiere as an indie film at Sundance, but Lionsgate nabbed it days before the festival, launching the career of director James Wan in the process.
Lionsgate
4. "The Butterfly Effect" (2004) - $57.9 million • Ashton Kutcher was at the peak of his fame when he appeared at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. Though critics weren't kind to the movie or to Kutcher's performance in the psychological thriller, it went on to be a box office success, making $96.1 million worldwide.
New Line Cinema
3. "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006) - $59.8 million • "Little Miss Sunshine" might be the quintessential Sundance movie -- a quirky, happy-go-lucky family comedy about an offbeat group of individuals -- but it would also prove to be a massive crowd-pleaser. Fox Searchlight acquired it for $10.5 million in a heated bidding war, which at the time was among the highest amounts spent for a Sundance title. The film also won two Oscars, including for Alan Arkin, and earned a nomination for its child star Abigail Breslin.
Fox Searchlight
2. "The Blair Witch Project" (1999) - $140.5 million • When it first premiered at Sundance, "The Blair Witch Project" was hyped as though the actors in the film were either "deceased" or "missing." Critics raved about how the horror film introduced the "found footage" technique to the movies, leading Artisan Films to acquire it for $1.1 million. The film then received months of publicity and word of mouth attention that it was actually based on real events. And because it was made on a shoestring budget of just $60,000 before grossing $250 million worldwide, it has subsequently become one of the most successful independent films of all time.
Artisan
1. "Get Out" (2017) - $176.0 million • Jordan Peele's debut film "Get Out" ended up being a studio film distributed by Universal, but it earned its indie cred by premiering at Sundance before surprising audiences with its record-setting box office run a month later in February 2017.
Universal
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Films like “Precious,” “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Napoleon Dynamite” all made noise in Park City before hitting the box office
Sundance is the biggest market for indie films around, and for good reason. The festival has a history of finding the quirky, independent crowd-pleaser that goes on to be a box office smash. 2020 saw a record sale of $17.5 million for the Andy Samberg comedy "Palm Springs," which proved to be one of Hulu's biggest movies ever. And while some films fizzle at the box office despite their festival hype, many more manage to sustain that buzz all the way until Oscar season. Here are a few that made a splash at both Park City and for wide audiences. All box office figures are domestic numbers.
Broad Green Pictures
