Rena Ronson

Rena Ronson heads the Independent Film Group and is a partner at leading global talent and entertainment company United Talent Agency. One of the industry’s pre-eminent packaging and finance executives, Ronson specializes in global film finance, distribution and marketing strategies for independent and co-financed features, helping the world’s most acclaimed independent filmmakers see their work reach global audiences. Ronson oversees a group of agents known for packaging and representing many high-profile and critically-praised independently financed films from a diverse range of American and international filmmakers, including Greta Gerwig, Asghar Farhadi, Wes Anderson, Michael Showalter, Judd Apatow, Marielle Heller, Haifaa Al-Mansour, Noah Baumbach, James Ponsoldt and Mike White, to name a few. Most recently, Ronson played an integral role in the 2018 Academy Award nominated films I Tonya, Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird, as well as Bryan Fogel’s Oscar-winning documentary ICARUS. Throughout her career, Ronson has been involved in numerous productions and co-productions, packaging, structuring, financing and selling hit films, including the Apatow production The Big Sick, Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya, Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty and Ted Melfi’s Hidden Figures. She also helped structure the intricate UK/Irish/Canadian co-production financing and packaging of the 2016 Academy Award nominated film Room and secured the first-ever co-production between Germany and Saudi Arabia for Al-Mansour’s 2013 film Wadjda. Ronson also is known for working with acclaimed filmmakers on their directorial debuts, including Greta Gerwig’s Ladybird, Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead, Marielle Heller’s Diary of a Teenage Girl, Jill Soloway’s Afternoon Delight and Jonas Cuaron’s Desierto, among others. Prior to joining UTA in 2009, Ronson co-headed William Morris Independent, where she helped create the first global film finance division at a major talent agency. Before becoming an agent, Ronson was a veteran sales and distribution executive, having run Lakeshore International, a division of Lakeshore Entertainment, which she helped establish after leading its acquisition of the TransAtlantic Film library, where she had previously worked.