Lizzie Nastro Adler
The sxsw Panelist and Indie Producer Shares Her Transition from Corporate to Indie Film
Lizzie Nastro Adler is currently the Head of Development for King Bee Productions, the production company created by Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola. King Bee has a first-look TV deal with eOne Entertainment.
She most recently produced I Am a Town, a documentary feature directed by artist Mischa Richter, shot on 35mm, which premiered at MoMA Doc Fortnight 2020.
She produced Skate Kitchen, a feature film written and directed by Crystal Moselle, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance FF and was released nationwide by Magnolia Pictures.
She adapted the film into a series for HBO called Betty, currently in pre-production on its second season.
Additionally, she produced White Echo, the third collaboration with writer/director Chloë Sevigny. The short premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the main selection.
She produced One Cambodian Family Please for My Pleasure, made in conjunction with Refinery 29’s Shatterbox Anthology and TNT, starring Emily Mortimer. The same year I produced Gillian Jacob’s Curated, in fact!
The short film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and is in development as a series. Previously, she produced the short documentary Brian Anderson on Being a Gay Pro Skateboarder for Vice and Kitty, the first short film by Chloë Sevigny, which premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival in the Critics’ Week section. She produced The Wannabe, a film directed by Nick Sandow, starring Patricia Arquette and Vincent Piazza, which had its premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival and was released nationwide by MGM. Prior to The Wannabe, she was a producer on Bluebird, a film directed by Lance Edmands, starring John Slattery and Amy Morton.
Nastro spent nine years at IFC Films as Director of Acquisitions & Co-Productions before becoming an independent producer. Some of the deals she negotiated include Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture, Medicine for Melancholy directed by Barry Jenkins, The Pleasure of Being Robbed by the Safdie Brothers, and Myth of the American Sleepover, directed by David Robert Mitchell.
She has served on panels at the LA, Sundance, Locarno, Savannah, and SXSW film festivals. She was a 2017 Sundance producing summit fellow.
This week, we dig into the stamina for the producing hustle, the transition from corporate to indie, and her advice for mid-level producers.
Tune in!
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"The makeup of a producer is [that] it's really hard to totally give up and fail. Things just happen… if you're a good producer, you kind of figure out how to just make it all work... But that's really, mentally, really hard.”
- Lizzie Nastro Adler
Episode Transcript
