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Edward R. Pressman

With more than 75 diverse motion pictures and over 30 years of experience to his credit, native New Yorker and film producer Edward R. Pressman has forged a career of international renown, marked by originality and eclecticism. Throughout his maverick career, he has brought numerous emerging filmmakers together with projects that have put them firmly on the map. Pressman’s reputation as a daring filmmaker was cemented with the international recognition of the French Cinematheque, which presented a 1989 retrospective of his films and awarded him the esteemed Chevalier Des Arts et Des Lettres medal. He’s also received tributes from The National Film Theatre in London, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Pacific Film Archives and Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Cinematék. In 2003, Pressman was honored with the IFP Gotham Award for lifetime achievement. In May 2010, Pressman was among 12 notable filmmakers honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences at their “Magnificent Collections” event which announced the Academy's archiving of Pressman’s films and papers.

Pressman’s specialty is discovering new talent and bringing new experiences to motion picture audiences. He is known for fostering the careers of young and inspired filmmakers and actors, including Brian De Palma, Terrence Malick, Jason Reitman, Oliver Stone, Kathryn Bigelow, Alex Proyas, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and David Gordon Green. His international productions include Wolfgang Peterson’s Das Boot, the Taviani brothers’ Good Morning, Babylon, and Fred Schepsi’s Plenty.

Over the years, Pressman has produced director‐driven, high profile projects, including Mary Harron’s American Psycho, Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, Wayne Kramer’s acclaimed Vegas romance The Cooler starring Alec Baldwin in his Oscar-nominated role, David Mamet’s Homicide and Barbet Schroeder’s Reversal of Fortune starring Jeremy Irons in his Academy Award–winning performance.

Recent Pressman productions include Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps starring Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, and Frank Langella and Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, and Val Kilmer. Upcoming Pressman productions include the screen adaptation of The Moth Diaries for which Pressman is reteaming with director Mary Harron. Pressman also recently announced that he will produce a reinvention of The Crow with Relativity Media and is collaborating with Oscar‐winning actor Forest Whitaker on a Louis Armstrong biopic, directed by and starring Whitaker.

Pressman enjoys a unique collaboration in Sunflower Productions with long‐time friend Terrence Malick. Previous Sunflower productions include Amazing Grace directed by Michael Apted and starring Ioan Gruffudd, Michael Gambon, and Albert Finney; Happy Times by acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou; and The Beautiful Country directed by Hans Petter Moland and starring Nick Nolte, Tim Roth, and Bai Ling.

Pressman attended New York’s Fieldston School and then went on to graduate with honors from Stanford University with a B.A. in philosophy. He pursued graduate studies at the London School of Economics.