Keri Putnam is an award-winning senior media executive, producer, board member, and strategic advisor to media companies and nonprofit organizations. Throughout her career, she has supported, developed, and produced bold, original media from new and established talent and advocated for a more diverse and inclusive media.
In 2022, Putnam founded Putnam Pictures to produce film and television from creators with distinct and adventurous vision.
Putnam sits on the Board of Directors of AMC Entertainment as well as of the privately held German media company Leonine. She is a Board member of Doc Society and New_Public, and co-founded ReFrame, a nonprofit dedicated to a more representative and equitable media. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, a mentor at USC’s Stark Producing Program, and an advisory council member at Brooklyn College’s Feirstein School. She is a founding member of the LA Women’s Political Caucus and member of the creative council at EMILY’s List.
Previously, Putnam served as CEO of Sundance Institute from 2010-2021. She led the Sundance Film Festival and a wide array of year-round global lab and granting programs for new storytellers in film, series, documentary, theater, and new media. While at The Shorenstein Center, she will research and report on the state of independent media in the U.S., with a particular eye on the lack of opportunity for long form storytelling today.
She and her team championed early work from scores of filmmakers who went onto successful careers in film and television, including several Academy Award and Emmy winners. Sundance Institute grew by 300% during her tenure, launched pioneering digital products, innovative strategic partnerships, and international festivals and programs around the world. The organization also significantly invested in diversity, equity, and inclusion as leading advocates for historically underrepresented voices in media.
Prior to Sundance, Putnam served as President of Production at Miramax Films, a division of the Walt Disney Company, where she oversaw a global team in development, production, post-production, acquisitions, and production finance. During her four-year tenure, Miramax films were recognized with 34 Academy Award nominations and 7 wins.
Putnam began her career as an assistant in original programming at HBO and spent fifteen years as an executive there, ending her tenure as Executive Vice President of movies and limited series, where she supervised production of over 45 films and miniseries that collectively received over 50 Emmy Awards and nominations, as well as numerous Peabody Awards, Golden Globes, and other honors.
