Sit down to lunch with Tom Ortenberg in Los Angeles.
Tom Ortenberg is CEO of Open Road Films and the driving force behind the film "Spotlight," the winner of 2016 Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Throughout a storied Hollywood career, Ortenberg has felt a passion to produce quality story-telling about important societal issues. “Spotlight” follows The Boston Globe’s investigative journalism team as it reported on cases of pedophilia in the Catholic Church.
Ortenberg founded Open Road in 2011 after a successful studio career as a top executive with Lionsgate Entertainment and The Weinstein Company, after beginning his career at Columbia Pictures. Tom has driven the financing, production and/or marketing and distribution of such acclaimed films as “Monster’s Ball,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” the “Saw” and Tyler Perry film franchises, “Crash” - Tom’s first association with an Academy Award win for Best Picture - “Inglourious Basterds,” “Chef,” and “Spotlight,” among many others.
Ortenberg is a Board member of The Creative Coalition, the premier non-profit, non-partisan social and public advocacy organization of the arts and entertainment community, and also serves on the Board of the Southern California ACLU Foundation. Tom is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures & Sciences (AMPAS), the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and also served for 14 years on the Board of Film Independent, the premiere non-profit organization championing independent filmmaking.
Tom was named #2 on The Hollywood Reporter’s list of most influential people in Independent Film, was honored with the Hollywood Leadership Award by the Hollywood Film Festival and has been guest lecturer and speaker at numerous classes, panels and conventions including Harvard Business School, the American Film Market and the Cannes, Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals. A graduate of Penn State University, Tom has been a longtime supporter of the university and serves on the Board of, and underwrites an Endowment for, the Penn State Hollywood Internship Program.
Tom was also recently awarded an Alumni Fellowship by Penn State, the highest honor given to Penn State Alumni. Tom resides in Santa Monica with his wife, Edith, and has three sons: Jason, Andrew and Cole.