Ted Hope

Ted Hope (born 1962) is an American independent film producer based in New York City.

He is best known for co-founding the production/sales company Good Machine, where he produced the first films of such notable filmmakers as Ang Lee, Nicole Holofcener, Todd Field, Michel Gondry, Moisés Kaufman, and Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, among others.

Hope later co-founded This is That with several associates from Good Machine.

He later worked at the San Francisco Film Society and Amazon Studios.

In 1990, Hope and James Schamus founded Good Machine, an independent film production company based in New York.

They started doing line production for hire for various international auteurs, including Claire Denis, Dani Levy, and Jan Schutte.

At Good Machine, Hope and James Schamus produced Ang Lee's early films including Pushing Hands, The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman (both Academy Award nominees), The Ice Storm, and Ride with the Devil.

Hope produced Todd Solondz's Cannes Critics' Prize-winning Happiness, which Hope and his partners at Good Machine released themselves when its distributor dropped the film.

Hope also executive produced Todd Field's In the Bedroom, which earned five Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Hope and Schamus brought David Linde in as a partner to Good Machine, in order to start their foreign sales arm, Good Machine International.

In 2000, the Museum of Modern Art honored Good Machine with a retrospective.

In 2001, the partners sold the company to Universal.

Schamus and Linde stayed on and merged the international sales company with USA Films to create Focus Features.

With fellow Good Machine producers Anne Carey and Anthony Bregman, and Head of Business Affairs Diana Victor, Hope co-founded New York production company This is That in 2002.

This is That specialized in unique content and innovative storytelling.

This is That has produced seventeen films in the six years since its inception.

This is That's first release, 21 Grams, received two Academy Award nominations and five BAFTA nominations.

The company's second release, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Among Hope's twenty-three Sundance entries, are three Grand Jury Prize winners: American Splendor (2003), The Brothers McMullen (1995) and What Happened Was... (1994).

American Splendor also won the FIPRESCI Award at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, the Critics prize at the 2003 Deauville Film Festival, and was nominated for five Spirit Awards and one Academy Award.

Hope has also produced two Sundance Opening Night selections: Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money (2006) and Moises Kaufman's The Laramie Project (2002), which was nominated for five Emmys.

In 2010, the company released The American, which opened at No. 1 at the US box office on opening week, and completed Super, written and directed by James Gunn, which was the first film to sell that year at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The company closed its doors in September 2010 after financial struggles with maintaining the office space.

Hope hinted that he and Carey could possibly produce together again in the future.

On August 8, 2012, the San Francisco Film Society named Hope as executive director of SFFS effective September 1.

Ted Hope began work at the San Francisco Film Society Mid September 2012.

Upon taking the position, Hope stated that it was an offer he could not refuse: “to save Indie Film and build it better than it has been before.” Moving away from project-specific producing, Hope has turned his focus on producing an infrastructure that will sustain and nurture diverse artists, discover and promote fresh talent, and advance the tools and practices that will benefit those that create and appreciate truly ambitious art and entertainment.

In 2013, IndieWire named Hope to its inaugural list of Influencers, a list "dedicated to 40 of the people and companies who have captured our attention as we watch them try to figure out what the independent film industry is today and, more importantly, what it will become."

The Hollywood Reporter cited Hope and his partners at This is That among the twenty-five most powerful people in the Independent Film business.

Hope transferred into the undergraduate film program at New York University.

He met his frequent collaborator and former business partner Anne Carey on his first day there.

After graduating, Hope worked as a production assistant for approximately three years, while also working as a script reader for numerous companies including New Line and MGM.

Hope advanced from work as a Production Assistant to Assistant Directing and Production Management.

During that time he started to identify projects and filmmakers he wanted to work with.

Most notably Hope started working with Hal Hartley in the years prior to their first production.

Hope's first productions were Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth and Trust, on which he is credited as First Assistant Director and Line Producer, respectively.

Hope announced he would resign as executive director at the end of 2013, citing the challenges of working with a staff of 26 and a board.

He said he planned to remain in the San Francisco Bay Area and lead the Film Society's advisory board.

In March 2014, Noah Cowen, former director of the Toronto International Film Festival, took over as executive director of the SFFS.

Hope's production of Oscar-winner Alan Ball's feature film directorial debut Towelhead marked his 18th production of a first time feature film director.