Former Sundance Head Tabitha Jackson Will Next Lead NYC’s Film Forum

Former Sundance festival director Tabitha Jackson has a brand-new gig, and it’s one close to her heart (and home). Film Forum and its Board of Directors today announced that Jackson has been named director of Film Forum, beginning Monday, February 23, 2026.

Per today’s press release, “Jackson is an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in independent and non-profit media, both in the U.S. and her native England. She joins Film Forum energized by two years of research fellowships with MIT Open Documentary Lab, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy; and a Rockefeller Foundation residency; in which she considered both the current state of institutional trust, and mediated reality and its implications for the documentary project.”

Jackson’s resume is long and eclectic, including a background in researching, producing, and directing. At Channel4, the UK’s second public broadcaster, she served as a Commissioning Editor for Arts and Performance and Animation, and as an Executive Producer for Film4.

In 2013, she became director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, “where she oversaw non-fiction film from development to distribution, championing hundreds of documentary filmmakers, growing program funding, and implementing a more expansive artist-driven institutional approach to the art of nonfiction.”

In 2020, Jackson was named director of the Sundance Film Festival. In June 2022, two years after assuming the position after the departure of long-time festival director John Cooper, Jackson stepped down from her role at Sundance. She had, quite notably, led the festival through two pandemic-era virtual-only festivals. In September 2022, IndieWire’s own co-founder Eugene Hernandez took over the role, where he continues to this day.

Film Forum has also been through some leadership changes in recent years. In January 2023, long-time head Karen Cooper stepped down after 51 years of steering the theater. She was succeeded by Sonya Chung, who took over the role in July 2023, and stepped down from the position at the end of 2025, after two years.

The national search for Film Forum’s next director was led by a committee headed by Film Forum Board Chair Gray Coleman (Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP) and HR professional Stella Strazdas (together, the executive committee of the board), facilitated by Edie Demas, Vice President, Organizational Strategy and Brenna Thomas, Search Consultant, at TOC Arts Partners.

“After a search process involving a large number of extremely qualified candidates, our board of directors and staff quickly reached a strong consensus around Tabitha, and it’s no surprise, given her passion for film and history of strong management in the non-profit arts arena,” said Coleman in an official statement. “Plus she is a longtime resident of Greenwich Village and has spent years attending screenings and events at Film Forum.”

For Jackson, the move seems to be a very good fit indeed. “Independent nonprofit arthouse cinema’ — those four words distill everything I’ve championed throughout my career. That they also describe Film Forum, my local movie theater, makes this appointment feel like coming home,” said Jackson in her own statement. “For 56 years, Film Forum has built a national and international reputation for bold curation, unparalleled repertory programming, fiercely loyal audiences — and legendary banana bread. It is an honor to step into the world built by my predecessors Karen Cooper and Sonya Chung, Artistic Directors Bruce Goldstein and Mike Maggiore, Managing Director Chad Bolton, and the rest of the incredible Film Forum staff and board, and a privilege to lead this vital space into its next chapter. Because Film Forum is where art becomes civic life — where a film can start a debate, transform the way we see, or simply remind us we’re not alone in the dark.”

Jackson has won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award for her producing work, the Leading Light Award at the DOC NYC Visionaries Tribute in 2018, and was presented with the Trustees Award by the Grierson Trust in 2021. She is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and served three terms on the Documentary Branch Executive Committee.