Bio

Louise Levison, President of Business Strategies (moviemoney.com), has been a financial consultant in the film industry for more than 20 years. She specializes in creating business plans for film and consulting on other aspects of independent filmmaking and distribution. She is the author of Filmmakers & Financing: Business Plans for Independents (Sixth Edition, October 2009, Focal Press) and publisher/editor of The Film Entrepreneur: A Newsletter for the Independent Filmmaker and Investors. Levison's clients have raised money for low-budget films such as The Blair Witch Project, the most profitable independent film in history, and for companies raising as much as $300 million.

Her clients’ films include:

"The Blair Witch Project" – the most profitable independent film in history
"Trouble the Water"
"Black, White and Blues"
"Moving Midway"
"Visual Acoustics"
"Highroller: the Stu Unger Story"
"Crimebusters"
"The Open Road"
"Broken Hill"
"Paradise (aka Little Chicago)"
"The First of May"
"Protecting the King"
"Baptists At Our Barbecue"
"Michael Winslow Live"

Among her corporate clients are:

Louverture Films
Louverture Film Fund I
The Pamplin Film Company
Majestic World Entertainment
WhiteLight Entertainment
Tokuma International Ltd
LightTower Entertainment
Summitworks Film Fund I
Monterrey Pictures Entertainment
Audience Alliance Motion Picture Studios
Levison is also an affiliate of the Berlin-based consulting company, Peacefulfish.
Levison writes a blog for Baseline Intelligence

She is an Instructor in the Extension Program at UCLA and has been a Visiting Professor at the Taipei (Taiwan) National University of the Arts, the University of Montana (Missoula) and Chapman University and conducted workshops at film festivals around the U.S. and overseas, including:

Film Independent
The Sundance Film Festival
ShowBiz Expo
Galway (Ireland) Film Fleadh
Producer’s Guild of America
National Assocaition of Broadcasters
National Assoc. of Latino Indepdent Producers
Women in Film
The Florida Motion Picture and Television Association
Florida Media Market
The Hollywood Black Film Festival
Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts
The Cincinnati Film Commission
ALM- SRI's Annual Film Finance & Distribution Summit
Georgia Film and Videa Center
American Black Film Festival
California Lawyers for the Arts
The Hollywood Film Festival
Austin Film Festival
Nashville Film Festival
Arizona Film Comission
The Learning Annex
The Los Angeles Venture Association
National Association of Women Business Owners

Louise Levison, President of Business Strategies (moviemoney.com), has been a financial consultant in the film industry for more than 20 years. She specializes in creating business plans for film and consulting on other aspects of independent filmmaking and distribution. She is the author of Filmmakers & Financing: Business Plans for Independents (Sixth Edition, October 2009, Focal Press) and publisher/editor of The Film Entrepreneur: A Newsletter for the Independent Filmmaker and Investors. Levison's clients have raised money for low-budget films such as The Blair Witch Project, the most profitable independent film in history, and for companies raising as much as $300 million. She also is Co-Executive Producer of Blood for Blood. Other clients' projects include Crimebusters, Black, White and Blues, Moving Midway, Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman, High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story, Protecting the King, The Open Road, Dinner Rush, Paradise (aka Little Chicago), The First of May, Michael Winslow Live and California Dreaming. Among her corporate clients are Danny Glover's Louverture Films (2008 nominee for Best Documentary Academy Award Trouble the Water, Toussaint) and his Louverture Film Fund I, The Pamplin Film Company, Majestic World Entertainment, Summitworks Film Fund 1, Audience Alliance Motion Picture Studios (Broken Hill), Monterrey Pictures Entertainment, Tokuma International Ltd (Shall We Dance, Princess Mononoke) and the Ilya Salkind Company. Levison is also an affiliate of the Berlin-based consulting company Peacefulfish (peacefulfish.com) and writes an industry blog for Baseline Intelligence (baselineintel.com), a division of Baseline StudioSystems.

Levison is an Instructor in the Extension Program at UCLA and has been a Visiting Professor at the Taipei (Taiwan) National University of the Arts, Chapman University (Orange County, CA) and the University of Montana (Missoula). She has presented seminars and/or been on panels at the Sundance Film Festival (including "Financing Your Film: Avoiding the Pitfalls from Business Plan to Distribution" in 2010 and 2011), Los Angeles Film Festival, Film Independent (FIND), , Producer's Guild of America, Galway (Ireland) Film Fleadh, National Association of Broadcasters, Hollywood Black Film Festival, Florida Media Market, American Black Film Festival, National Association Of Latino Independent Producers, Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts, Austin Film Festival, Georgia Film and Video Center, Austin Film Festival, Florida Motion Picture and Television Association, Cincinnati Film Commission, Arizona Film Commission, Independent Cinema Expo, Women in Film, California Lawyers for the Arts, Nashville Film Festival, The Learning Annex (New York and Los Angeles) and others.

Prior to working in the entertainment industry, Levison worked for the Stanford Research Institute, the American Iron and Steel Institute, two for-profit hospital corporations and as a stockbroker. She also co-hosted a call-in radio show heard on 100 stations in the United States, Canada and Mexico on the Business Radio Network for three years. She is a member of Film Independent (Los Angeles), Women in Film, the International Documentary Association and the U.S. Internet Industry Association. Her education includes an M.A. in Asian Area Studies from New York University, an M.B.A. in Finance from California State University (Dominguez Hills) and a B.A. from Simmons College (Boston). Born and raised in Cincinnati Ohio, she graduated from Walnut Hills High School.