Finance I – From Packaging to Payback: Investment, Incentives & International Markets

Speakers

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  Josh Rosenbaum Partner & Producer, Waypoint Entertainment
  

  Josh Rosenbaum

  Partner & Producer, Waypoint Entertainment

  Josh Rosenbaum is a Partner and Producer at Waypoint Entertainment, where he combines creative vision with business strategy to develop, finance, and produce bold, genre-spanning films. Over the past decade, he has been a driving force behind Waypoint’s slate, its horror label Cweature Features, and the company’s strategic partnerships.

  Rosenbaum executive produced Yorgos Lanthimos’ Academy Award-winning The Favourite, as well as NEON’s upcoming Hokum with Adam Scott, Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters, Aneil Karia’s Hamlet, Michael Angelo Covino’s Splitsville, Duke Johnson’s The Actor, and Nick Rowland’s She Rides Shotgun.

  His previous projects include Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo, Scott Cooper’s Hostiles, Netflix’s Tau, Jonah Hill’s Mid90s, Martin Zandvliet’s The Outsider, Lionsgate’s The Glass Castle, A24’s Woodshock, and Woody Harrelson’s Lost in London.

  A USC graduate, Rosenbaum began his career in film finance and distribution at WME.

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  Jeff Caruso SVP, Sales & Success, Wrapbook
  

  Jeff Caruso

  SVP, Sales & Success, Wrapbook

  Jeff Caruso has spanned both sides of the production world. He’s walked the set in hands-on production roles, navigated the complexities of production finance at Summit Entertainment, and spent over a decade helping studios and streamers manage their business at Cast & Crew. This unique mix of experience gives him rare insight into the challenges finance teams face from prep through wrap—and why the industry is hungry for change.

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  Jeaneane Davey Founder, Callisto Advisory, Inc.
  

  Jeaneane Davey

  Founder, Callisto Advisory, Inc.

  Jeaneane Davey is a seasoned Tax and Production Incentives professional, with over 16 years of experience in the entertainment industry, including over 12 years of working with production incentives.

  Jeaneane began her career in general tax consulting at PwC in 2009. She then joined Fox’s Production Tax Planning & Incentives team in 2013, and advised on all production-related tax and incentive matters for Fox’s Film, Television, and Sports divisions until leaving for Netflix in 2016. After having led different teams which, collectively and at different points in time, supported all of Netflix’s content teams and studio-wide initiatives from both an incentives and tax-perspective, Jeaneane left Netflix in February 2025 to launch her own advisory practice, specializing in tailored tax planning solutions for media industry companies and professionals.

  Jeaneane holds a Master of Accounting from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a licensed CPA in the state of California.

• 

  Sam Pressman CEO, Pressman Film
  

  Sam Pressman

  CEO, Pressman Film

  Sam Pressman was named CEO, Pressman Film, in January 2023. Since then, he has ushered in an exciting new era of growth for the company through his long-standing relationships with talent, industry insiders and an expansive independent financing network. Pressman Film was founded by Sam’s late father Edward R. Pressman who produced such iconic films as Badlands, Conan the Barbarian, American Psycho and Wall Street. The Los Angeles-based production company has produced four films so far in 2025 including Takashi Miike’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, a new take on Pressman’s 1992 classic Bad Lieutenant and Gus Van Sant’s hostage thriller Dead Man’s Wire starring Bill Skarsgard, Coleman Domingo and Al Pacino, and currently has over a dozen new films in active development including Luca Guadagnino’s new adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho.

  Under Sam, Pressman Film is also pushing into TV and stage, expanding operations internationally with new creative execs, and recently secured $2 million in an unprecedented crowd-equity development raise on Republic.com that allows big screen fans a chance to invest in its upcoming slate—a first for Hollywood. The company recently announced its teaming with Tomorrow Studios on a new limited TV series at Apple about the Claus von Bülow trial from Jack Thorne (Adolescence) and unveiled its first slate of TV projects with writers, directors and producers behind such series as The Wire, Bosch and Tehran. Earlier this summer, Pressman also unveiled it is in development on a musical stage version of the company’s Brian De Palma cult hit Phantom of the Paradise with Paul Willams.

  Sam is also pushing his team to incorporate VR, AI, blockchain and other cutting-edge technology into its everyday business models and the company has recently produced several projects that showcase new tech. Pressman Film recently partnered with Asteria to bring John Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed AI installation Beyond The Vivid Unknown to this year’s Immersive Competition at Cannes and a year earlier, alongside EP Terrence Malick, produced VR experience Evolver, which features the voice of Cate Blanchett and was part of the inaugural Cannes Immersive Competition. Pressman is bringing VR experience Dark Rooms to the Venice’s Immersive Competition this summer and earlier this year debuted the groundbreaking film About a Hero in Holland at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, which was created through a collaboration between director Piotr Winiewicz and Kaspar, an LLM trained the work of Werner Herzog (with his permission.) About a Hero has since played more than 20 festivals across Europe and Asia with its North American debut to be announced soon.

  Before assuming the role of CEO, Sam worked with his father on such films as Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Barry Levinson’s Paterno, Keith Maitland’s Dear Mr. Brody, Matt Brown’s The Man Who Knew Infinity, Mary Harron’s Daliland and Rupert Sander’s reboot of The Crow. With a deep reverence for his father’s contributions to independent cinema and a firm commitment to carrying on the Pressman penchant for storytelling, Sam approaches his role as producer with a sense of humility and a fierce determination to create films that honor the company’s legacy. Sam graduated from Stanford University, where he majored in Film & Media Studies and was the president of the Stanford Film Society and head of the Advanced Film Workshop.

• 

  Jeremy Ross President of Film, Rabbits Black
  

  Jeremy Ross

  President of Film, Rabbits Black

  Jeremy Ross is the President of Film at Rabbits Black, a global media and entertainment company specializing in creative strategy, end-to-end production, and innovative investment and financing across film, media, sports, music, and lifestyle companies.

  At Rabbits Black, Ross oversees the company’s film investment and distribution portfolio, managing partnerships across financing, production, and theatrical release. He has executive produced more than 20 films, including the upcoming Casey Affleck thriller Company, Pathetic Fallacy starring Kid Cudi and Natasha Lyonne, Kill Me starring Charlie Day and Allison Williams, and Midnight starring Rosario Dawson and Milla Jovovich. Ross also led Rabbits Black’s co-release of Stitch Head in partnership with Briarcliff, dentsu, and Fever/Atom Tickets.

  Prior to Rabbits Black, Ross was a founding partner at 3QU Media, an animated film production company initially capitalized with $25 million in equity. The company produced and sold four CG-animated features to Netflix – Gnome Alone, Charming, Trouble, and Fearless – two of which reached #1 on the platform globally. He also executive produced the Academy Award-winning If Anything Happens I Love You for Netflix. Earlier in his career, Ross worked in business affairs for producer John H. Williams (Shrek), Disney, and 20th Century Fox, and later led business development and business affairs for Prana Studios, overseeing projects including three Tinkerbell films and two Planes franchise films for Disney.

  Ross is also a founding partner at Nineteen10 Capital, an SEC-exempt investment manager of Nineteen10 Fund, initially capitalized with $20 million for film investments. He has consulted for Blue Fox Financing, helping launch a platform that has closed more than two dozen loans totaling over $20 million. Across his career, Ross has closed or assisted in more than $200 million in debt and equity financing for independent productions.

  Ross holds an M.B.A. from USC’s Marshall School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Northwestern University.