10 Managers You Should Know About

If You're Seeking Representation or Production Partners

One of the common goals shared by independent filmmakers is to find representation. Some are looking for an agent, while others want a manager. Or both. Sadly, Hollywood has fostered the necessary evil of gatekeepers. To get to your material top talent, you have to go through management, or publicists, or attorneys.

To get your projects to studios, networks or streaming platforms, many of them won’t consider unsolicited material. For many years, agents and managers have controlled those pipelines, particularly for the projects seeking commercial distribution.

While agents held supreme power into the 1990s, with CAA, William Morris and ICM all duking it out at the top, managers were on the rise. And they were not limited to the 10% cap Agents take off the top of a client’s paycheck. They could set their fee limits AND produce movies for and with their clients. Commissions plus producer fees and ownership. Sounds good, right?

More importantly, they gained a reputation for caring more about guiding the careers of their clients and were rolling up their sleeves to get movies and TV series made. Yes, some of the bigger management firms still refuse unsolicited material, and indie filmmakers don’t want those with gatekeepers anyway.

Managers can help you on many fronts, with professional guidance and introductions to production partners, industry execs, agents and entertainment lawyers (managers can’t negotiate contracts so you still need a good lawyer). They also care more about advancing your career than how big your paycheck might be.

Here are 10 of the Management companies you should know about, if you’re interested in representation. They all have a track record, care about emerging talent and consider query letters. The list is in alpha order, with language from their respective websites and link to learn more.

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Aperture Entertainment

Aperture Entertainment is a boutique management/production company founded by Adam Goldworm in 2009. Aperture reps a wide array of filmmakers and novelists and specializes in transmedia genre storytelling. Aperture has proven to be one of the leading companies in the business when it comes to adapting genre books and graphic novels.

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Bellevue Productions

Bellevue Productions is a leading literary management company with a focus on discovering and breaking new writers and writer-directors, working in both the feature film and television spaces. Bellevue has had 60 scripts on the last nine Black Lists, the annual list of best unproduced feature film scripts, and had BLONDE AMBITION by Elyse Hollander top the 2016 Black List, HEADHUNTER by Sophie Dawson top the 2020 Black List, and CAULIFLOWER by Daniel Jackson top the 2021 List. Bellevue had the most clients of any management company on the 2021 Black List and the 2022 Black List, with eleven clients on the 2022 list.

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