Film Forum Director Karen Cooper Retires After 50 Years at the Head of NYC Indie Cinema; Deputy Director Sonya Chung as successor

Karen Cooper, one of the country’s biggest art houses, is retiring on June 30 after 50 years as director of the Film Forum in New York City. The role will be played by deputy director Sonya Chung.

Cooper took the nonprofit cinema from its first iteration in 1972 as a 50-seat weekend hangout on the Upper West Side to a multimillion-dollar, four-screen, 500-seat operation in Lower Manhattan. She remains Chung’s advisor with a focus on premiere programming and fundraising

“To say that this is a moment of transition would be a gross understatement – for much of its history, Karen Film Forum has led strongly and very ably, not least during the very challenging pandemic time we are emerging from My colleagues on the Board and I are very grateful to her for her tenure and we are pleased to have found a very talented successor in Sonya with her own long and productive history in the organization,” said Gray Coleman, Chairman of said the Board of Directors Director of the Film Forum.

The Film Forum was founded in 1970 with an annual budget of US$19,000 to show independent American films not released in commercial theaters. Cooper took it through three expansions and grew it into a $6 million enterprise and a lineup of shows and premieres from around the world. It is also one of the country’s largest showcases for restored films. Bruce Goldstein, artistic director of the repertory, created a repertory program in 1986.

Cooper has programmed the cinema’s premieres solo since 1972 and with artistic director Mike Maggiore since 1996.

Chung has a 20-year history with Film Forum, where she served as development director for five years beginning in 2003. She left the film exhibition to write and publish two novels: longing for this world (2010, Scribner) and The lovers (2016, Descent Books). A staff writer and editor for The Millions since 2009, she taught literature and writing at Columbia University’s School of the Arts for three years and served as an assistant professor and writer-in-residence at Skidmore College for nine years. Saratoga Springs. NY. She was recruited by Cooper and Maggiore in 2018 to visit film festivals abroad and recommend new work for screenings, after which she was appointed assistant director in 2020.

She helped program and promote the Filmforum’s virtual cinema program during Covid and worked to develop partnerships with cultural and community organizations to expand the theatre’s reach to younger and more diverse audiences.

“Running a business, any business, is about solving problems and, more importantly, looking around corners and solving them before they become problems. I have the utmost respect for Sonya. She has excellent film taste and impeccable judgment on a variety of administrative issues, from finance to human resources. Knowing that she was ready and willing to become a director gave me the luxury, at a time when theater is financially sound, to step out and recognize a woman who is both intellectually astute and ethical,” Cooper said.

Cooper considers the New York premieres of hundreds of indie stories, documentaries and animated films – many by first-time filmmakers – to be her greatest achievement.

The list of artists whose early films she championed is long and includes Chantal Akerman, Matthew Barney, Charles Burnett, David Cronenberg, Julie Dash, Terence Davies, Asghar Farhadi, Haile Gerima, Michael Haneke, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Mike Leigh and Lucrecia Martel , Mira Nair, László Nemes, Gaspar Noé, Christopher Nolan, François Ozon, Cristi Puiu, Kelly Reichardt, Alexander Sokurov, Andrei Tarkovsky, Agnès Varda, Wong Kar-wai, Chloé Zhao, Andrei Zvyagintsev and documentary filmmakers Patricio Gugedusmán , Chris Hegedusmán, , Heddy Honigmann, Richard Leacock, Chris Marker, Albert & David Maysles, Errol Morris, DA Pennebaker, Kevin Rafferty, Marlon Riggs, Bruce Weber and Frederick Wiseman.

She hosted the American theatrical premiere of Michael Apted ON Documentary series – last 63 ON 2019 – and premiere key figures of New German Film from RW Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Werner Schroeter and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg to Margarethe von Trotta and Wim Wenders. Numerous international animators, including Nick Park, the Brothers Quay and Jan Švankmajer, also premiered at Film Forum under Cooper’s direction.

Chung says: “I consider it both a great honor and a great responsibility to take the Film Forum to the next level. Karen Cooper is an extraordinary leader: she has demonstrated what 50 years of unwavering excellence brings—a rigorously and lovingly curated cultural space that generations of New Yorkers have deemed essential. I am deeply grateful for the trust of the board, Karen’s advisors and the talent and commitment of the staff as we work to strengthen what makes Film Forum so popular today and seize exciting opportunities to develop in the future.

Filmforum executives will remain in their current roles: along with Goldstein and Maggiore, Chad Bolton will remain as executive director, Adam Walker as communications director, Mary Ellen Obias as development director, and Joe Berger as theater operations and events manager.