Finalist: Janet Savage

Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs
MarVista Entertainment
Harvard Law School

As the senior vice president of legal affairs at MarVista Entertainment, Janet Savage drove the company’s pivotal approach, empowering the independent film studio to produce over 50 films since the pandemic began. In addition to expertly negotiating changes in existing contracts, she has contractually facilitated the company’s growth amongst new and existing buyers, as well as supported drastically increased deal volume with long-time buyers. Savage’s wealth of experience and successful contract negotiations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have been essential for the company to resume its high volume of productions during such a strenuous time for the industry. While many major studios remained dark for an extended period, Savage worked tirelessly to reexamine existing contracts and address the concerns and liabilities of a new COVID-19 production environment. As the pandemic restrictions have begun to ease, Savage has once again set her sights towards continually expanding the company’s platform-agnostic content capabilities with key global deals.