The Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Tabitha Jackson has been named Director of Film Forum, beginning Monday, February 23, 2026.
Jackson is an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in independent and non-profit media, both in the US 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.
After starting her career as a researcher, producer, and director for the BBC, Jackson moved to Channel4, the UK’s second public broadcaster as a Commissioning Editor for Arts and Performance and Animation, and as an Executive Producer for Film4. She commissioned bold, non-fiction programming, including FF premieres “The Arbor” (Clio Barnard, 2010) and the Nick Cave documentary “20,000 Days On Earth” (Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard, 2014).
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.
Jackson was named Director of the Sundance Film Festival in 2020, where she was immediately called upon to steer one of the world’s great showcases of cinema through a global pandemic and multi-front cultural reckoning. She rose to the occasion, overseeing two fully digital festivals that took advantage of the format’s expanded reach, tripling the festival audience, establishing partnerships with 20 independent arthouse cinemas, and increasing access for historically underrepresented communities. In 2022, she co-created the popular podcast “The Film That Blew My Mind” with former Sundance Festival head John Cooper (with whom she co-hosts). She 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.
“‘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,” says Jackson. “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.”
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 Tom O’Connor Consulting Group.
“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,” commented Coleman. “Plus she is a longtime resident of Greenwich Village and has spent years attending screenings and events at Film Forum. My board colleagues and I look forward to seeing Tabitha preserve our mission and expand our reach for many years to come.”
About Film Forum
Founded in 1970, Film Forum (FF) is a 4-screen, independent, nonprofit arthouse cinema in downtown Manhattan. Its mission is to present the NYC theatrical premieres of a rich array of new independent documentaries and narrative features, programmed by Mike Maggiore, Premieres Artistic Director. The theater’s ambitious repertory program was started in 1986 by Bruce Goldstein, Founding Repertory Artistic Director, who continues to produce and program the theater’s classic restorations, festivals and special events, along with the popular Film Forum Jr. series for children.
Now in its 56th year, FF is open 365 days a year and has approx 225,000 annual admissions. FF presents 400-500 movies each year, both domestic and international, and 200+ live events. In fulfilling its nonprofit mission, FF takes risks on debut and little-known filmmakers, challenging subject matter, and underrecognized classics—offering this programming at the scope, pace, and volume of commercial theaters and contributing to the vitality of arthouse cinema.