White Horse Pictures Reorganizes Management Structure; Nicholas Ferrall appointed chairman and chief executive

Film and documentary production company White Horse Pictures announced Tuesday that it is moving forward with a strategic restructuring to support the growth of the company, which includes recent titles Lucie and Desi and Ron Howard’s photos The Beatles: eight days a week and Pavarotti.

As part of the changes, Nicholas Ferrall, the company’s current president, will assume the role of chairman and chief executive previously held by founder Nigel Sinclair and oversee all aspects of the company’s operations, growth and development. Sinclair will transition to non-executive chairman of the company, maintaining a role within the company while focusing on content creation.

Jeanne Elfant Festa and Cassidy Hartmann, two partners of the company, will assume the role of co-presidents and will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the company’s creative content, production and development.

White Horse has also partnered with Ben Murphy, a longtime Whiskey Bear employee, to oversee and streamline the company’s physical production process while remaining involved in creative development. Robert Dietz, who has been with White Horse Pictures since 2018, will assume the role of VP Production, leading day-to-day production and business development and reporting directly to the Executive Team.

Through the reorganization, White Horse continues its working relationships with senior management, supported by approximately 40 production and creative executives. The company’s new Executive Management Board consists of Ferrall, Elfant Festa and Hartmann, with Sinclair and Murphy present as needed.

“It has been my privilege to build White Horse with my partners over the past eight years, and I welcome the opportunity to expand my role in anticipation of this new phase of growth,” Ferrall said in a press release that the announce changes. “I look forward to continuing to work with Nigel and our amazing leadership team to continue producing quality films and documentaries.”

Elfant Festa and Hartmann added: “This is such an exciting time in our industry with so many opportunities for innovative and uplifting storytelling. We look forward to building on Nigel’s extensive experience and incredible relationships and growing White Horse’s manufacturing business, while maintaining our commitment to excellence in each of our projects.”

Sinclair said: “This new management plan positions White Horse Pictures to expand after nearly a decade of steady growth. I look forward to being part of the next chapter of this company as a new generation of leaders creates world-class content .”

Recent releases from White Horse Pictures have won Emmys three years in a row. These include those produced by Amy Poehler Lucie and Desidirected by Frank Marshall The Bee Gees: How to Mend a Broken Heartand the one directed by Roger Ross Williams The Apollo.

White Horse’s previous projects include documentaries directed by Howard The Beatles: Eight days a week and Pavarottialong with the short film on the Oscar shortlist refugee.

The company has included an extensive series of documentaries in production and post wilda documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker Chris Smith about legendary comedian Gene Wilder; taxationa multi-series for HBO on legendary Memphis soul label Stax Records, directed by Emmy nominee Jamila Wignot and produced by Academy Award winners Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow; Billy Preston, a documentary by Emmy Award-winning writer-director Paris Barclay; and Shari & Lamb Chop, Emmy nominee Lisa D’Apolito’s feature film about legendary puppeteer and personality Shari Lewis. As for the script, the company is currently in post-production on the genre feature The Queen MaryDirected by Gary Shore and starring Alice Eve and Joel Fry.

Sinclair co-founded White Horse Pictures with longtime business partner Guy East in 2014 after serving as CEO and co-chairman of Exclusive Media, a global film financing, production and distribution company. Before White Horse, Sinclair produced a number of documentary projects, including those of Martin Scorsese George Harrison: Life in the Material World and No Direction Home: Bob Dylan; Foo Fighters: Back and forth; the Grammy nominee Amazing Journey: The Story of the Whoand the Oscar winner Undefeated. Sinclair’s extensive screenwriting credits include The Ides of March, End of the Watch, Snitch, The Woman in Black, Sliding Doors, Terminator 3and The Quiet American.

Ferrall has served as President of White Horse Pictures since 2019, having succeeded from his previous role as Executive Producer. Previously he was VP at Exclusive Media. Ferrall is currently producing the upcoming taxation and wildand includes his previous executive producer credits The Beatles: Eight days a week, The Apolloand Bee Gees. Ferrall is also producing the upcoming genre feature The Queen Mary.

Elfant Festa was previously the head of documentaries and director of features at White Horse Pictures, overseeing the company’s documentary department. She began working with Sinclair when Piper Cub Productions, her own production company, struck a first-look deal with Exclusive Media and brought the two together to produce the Grammy-winning documentary. Foo Fighters: Back and forth. Elfant Festa also produced Lucie and Desi, The Bee Gees, The Apollo and Pavarotti.

Hartmann is a partner at White Horse and was previously director of documentary features at Exclusive Media. She was a producer The Apollo and executive producer The Bee Gees including credit. Hartmann is also a contributing writer for most White Horse projects. Her upcoming producer credits include wild and Shari & Lamb Chop.

Murphy began his career at talent agencies WME and Gersh before moving into production and earning credits Lucie and Desi, The Apollo and the upcoming sci-fi romantic comedy Molli and Max in the future. In addition to his work at White Horse, Murphy is President and Owner of Whiskey Bear and will continue to lead this creative production studio.

Dietz has had a variety of creative and production roles, including his most recent credits The Bee Gees, Pavarottiand the coming Shari & Lamb Chop.