MENU menu

Keri Putnam

Executive Director, Sundance Institute

Biography

Keri Putnam is CEO of Sundance Institute, where she oversees the Sundance Film Festival and the Institute’s extensive array of programs supporting independent storytellers around the world. Under her leadership, Sundance has grown to support 800 artists annually through labs, grants, workshops and festivals. Previously, Putnam was President of Production at Miramax, where she led production, acquisitions, co-productions and development. During her tenure, Miramax earned 34 Academy Award nominations and 7 wins. Putnam spent the first 15 years of her career at HBO, starting as an assistant in original programming and ending as Executive Vice President of movies and mini-series. She supervised over 50 productions, which collectively were nominated for or won over 50 Emmy Awards, numerous Peabody Awards, Golden Globes, the Humanitas Prize, the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or and other honors. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard, Putnam studied theatre history and literature.She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an Andrew D. White Professor at Large for the Arts at Cornell University, serves on the board of Women in Film Los Angeles, the advisory board of the Feirstein Film School at Brooklyn College, the advisory board at 826LA, the advisory council of Harvardwood, the advisory council of the Office of the Arts at Harvard University, and as a mentor at the Stark Producing Program at USC. She lives in Los Angeles.