About Speaker

Paula DuPré Pesmen (Producer/Writer) is an Oscar® nominated, Emmy® Award, and Grammy® Award-winning producer. In 2024, Pesmen produced the Sundance Grand Jury Prize US Documentary winner and Oscar-nominated film Porcelain War. Pesmen’s documentary journey began producing the Sundance Audience Award and Oscar-winning feature documentary The Cove. Finding her passion for documentary storytelling, her next feature Chasing Ice followed National Geographic photographer James Balog, and received an Emmy, SXSW Audience Award, and the Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival. In the years following, Pesmen dove into the story of jazz legend Quincy Jones in the Grammy winning documentary Quincy that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. She also mentored a first-time director in Keep On Keepin’ On, which received the IDFA and Tribeca Film Festival prizes Pesmen launched her film career as an Associate Producer on the producing teams of such narrative features as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rent, Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone 2, and Stepmom. Pesmen is an AMPAS Member and in 2010, she was named Producer of the Year by the PGA. For her philanthropic work, Pesmen was named a “Local Hero” by O, The Oprah Magazine.