Join us in welcoming Crazy Rich Asians Producer John Penotti as the mentor for the winner of ‘Best Film!’
John is President of SK Global, the merged entity of Los Angeles-based film finance/production entity Sidney Kimmel Entertainment (SKE), and New York and Hong Kong-based Ivanhoe Pictures, an international local-language content company.
As an independent producer, Penotti has produced over 45 films and has been a prominent industry executive since his start working with legendary director Sidney Lumet.
With Ivanhoe, Penotti has established a number of key partnerships to produce local-language films in China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Latin America and Indonesia. This includes relationships with Blumhouse Productions to produce a comprehensive slate of local-language genre films in India, including the Netflix multiyear series Ghoul.
Penotti also produced and co-financed the Golden Globe nominated comedy Crazy Rich Asians, an adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel directed by Jon M. Chu (Now You See Me 2) distributed by Warner Bros. The all-Asian cast, which includes Michelle Yeoh and Constance Wu, opened number one at the box office and is now one of the highest grossing romantic comedies of all time in the U.S. Penotti also executive produced the Taiwanese film Cities of Last Things, directed by Wi Ding Ho, which won the 2018 Toronto Platform Prize at TIFF, and the dramatic Hindi-language series Delhi Crime Story from award-winning director Richie Mehta which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Netflix acquired the series and has committed to a second season.
With Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Penotti oversaw the financing and production of the Oscar-nominated Best Picture Hell or High Water starring Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine. Upcoming SKE projects include the thriller Greta from director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) and starring Isabelle Huppert and Chloë Grace Moretz, set for release via Focus Features on March 1; and the dark comedy Going Places, written and directed by John Turturro (The Night Of), and starring Turturro, Bobby Cannavale, Audrey Tautou, and Susan Sarandon.
In 2016, Penotti Executive Produced director Na Hong-jin’s Korean phenomenon The Wailing, an Official Selection at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The film grossed $50M at the Korean box-office, making it the second highest-grossing Fox Korea film of all time after Avatar.
Penotti was the founding partner and President of GreeneStreet Films, a NY-based company from 1994 until 2013. While there, he oversaw the financing and producing of over thirty films, including the five-time Academy Award-nominated In the Bedroom, the #1 box office thriller Swimfan, the studio hit comedy Uptown Girls, Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion, the action-thriller Crank, and the documentary Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos.
In 2017, Penotti successfully oversaw the merger of Ivanhoe Pictures with Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, moving Ivanhoe’s US headquarters to Los Angeles to create the single entity SK Global. With Penotti serving as founding president, SK Global strives to incorporate SKE’s expert knowledge of the traditional independent film and television finance models with the international partnerships and understanding of local-language markets of Ivanhoe Pictures. The result, a single, unique company with a storied foundation in Hollywood filmmaking and strong working relationships with local producers around the globe. Additionally, with a combined library of over 80 titles, SK Global has an extensive catalogue of intellectual property with remake potential in virtually every significant film market.
In 2015, Penotti relocated from New York City to Santa Monica, CA, with his wife Sheryl and son Luca. Born and raised in Paterson, NJ, Penotti is a graduate of Tufts University, with degrees in Biology and Psychology.
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