Black Bear Pictures Teddy Schwarzman Joins Gotham Film Institute Board

Teddy Schwarzman, founder and CEO of independent studio Black Bear Pictures, is joining the board of directors of the Gotham Film & Media Institute (formerly IFP), while Mark D’Arcy, Facebook’s former chief creative officer, is stepping down to become the organization’s first Director Emeritus.

Black Bear, the company behind The Imitation Game and I Care A Lot, launched in 2011. It’s grossed over $350 million worldwide, been nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, ten BAFTAs and launched a television arm, Black Bear Television, last year. Schwarzman is currently producing Academy Award winning duo Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s narrative directorial debut, Nyad, starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster for Netflix, and exec producing the Amazon TV series Exciting Times from director Cooper Raiff and starring Phoebe Dynevor.

Upcoming releases include Dave Franco’s Somebody I Used to Know at Amazon, Neil Burger’s The Marsh King’s Daughter starring Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn for STX Films, and Martin Campbell’s Memory, starring Liam Neeson and Guy Pearce.

Schwarzman, through Black Bear, also owns leading Canadian independent film distributor Elevation Pictures.

D’Arcy exited as chief creative officer and global head of business marketing for Facebook – now called Meta – in Sept. of 2021 after a decade at the social media giant. His team produced several thousand projects across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Oculus for a diverse client base including 80% of the world’s top 100 advertisers. He helped establish the Facebook Awards to celebrate the best creative work on the platform.

Prior to joining Facebook, D’Arcy served as president and chief creative officer of Time Warner’s Global Media Group.

The Gotham’s board members, including Nancy Abraham, Anthony Bregman, Jeb Brody, Gerry Byrne, Alina Cho, Dan Crown, Amy Emmerich, Philipp Engelhorn, Kai Falkenberg, James Janowitz, Franklin Leonard, Soledad O’Brien, Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar, John Schmidt, Drew Wilson, and Celia Winchester.

The organization, led by executive director Jeffrey Sharp, supports the indie community with the Gotham Awards and Filmmaker Magazine and projects from Gotham Week, Gotham Labs and Gotham EDU, Owning It, and Expanding Communities