Megan Ellison

Early life and education

Ellison was born in Santa Clara County, California, the daughter of Oracle Corporation co-founder and chairman, multibillionaire Larry Ellison, and his ex-wife, Barbara Boothe Ellison. Her father is of Jewish and Italian descent. She has a brother, film producer David Ellison, who founded Skydance Media. Ellison graduated from Sacred Heart Preparatory in 2004 and attended film school at the University of Southern California for one year.

Career

Initial film work

Her first film credit was as a boom operator for the short film When All Else Fails, a thriller written and directed by her brother David Ellison. Ellison then began to finance low-budget movies such as Waking Madison and Passion Play.

Transition to production

Ellison started out in the film business in 2006 when she contacted Katherine Brooks, the writer and director of Loving Annabelle, about investing in the filmmaker's next movie. The duo made plans for Waking Madison, starring Elisabeth Shue, which told the story of a woman who tries to cure her multiple personality disorder by locking herself in a room without food for 30 days. Ellison financed the film that was reported to have a budget of $2 million. Principal photography took place in 2007. It screened at the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2011 and went straight to DVD in July of that year.

Ellison provided some financing for more movies in 2008 and 2009. The first was Main Street starring Colin Firth. It received little attention at film festivals and failed to gain general release. Passion Play, also made in 2009, got a release but fared poorly at the box office despite a well-known cast of popular actors. However, her investment in the Coen brothers western remake True Grit paid off as that movie found major commercial and critical success when released at the end of 2010.

After that, Ellison received access to much larger sums of money from her father for the production of more movies and partnered with Michael Benaroya to produce and cofinance the thriller Catch .44 starring Bruce Willis and Forest Whitaker.

Founding and expansion of Annapurna

In 2011, she founded Annapurna Pictures to invest in original, daring movies made by visionary directors and screenwriters. Believing that risk-averse Hollywood studios had largely abandoned sophisticated dramas, period pieces, and auteur cinema, Annapurna Productions has released Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, a period drama about a cult that resembles Scientology, Zero Dark Thirty, an action-thriller about the killing of Osama bin Laden from writer Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow, Spike Jonze's Her, and David O. Russell's American Hustle. It was named for the Annapurna Circuit she hiked in Nepal in 2006. Annapurna is backed by Ellison's billionaire father.

In 2011, Ellison outbid Lionsgate for the rights to the Terminator franchise. Ellison would then make a deal with her brother David Ellison so his Skydance Productions produced Terminator Genisys, where Megan only had an executive producer credit.

In 2014, Ellison became the first woman and the fourth person to receive two Academy Award nominations for Best Picture in the same year, which she received for her work on Her and American Hustle.

In 2019, Ellison lived in Lanai and remained there during the COVID-19 pandemic. In early 2021, her former chief of distribution Erik Lomis approached Ellison regarding purchasing Nimona, a project about to be cancelled with the closure of its production company Blue Sky Studios. She liked the footage and the film's LGBT elements, and agreed to acquire the project, establishing an Annapurna Animation division and hiring studio DNEG Animation to complete Nimona, eventually released by Netflix in 2023.

In October 2024, Ellison was announced as an executive producer on the film I Love Boosters and the television series Who Is Maud Dixon?.

Personal life

Ellison is openly lesbian. She owns a number of motorcycles. Additionally, she is a competitive equestrian, having trained at the Wild Turkey Farm in Woodside, California, and riding in the North American Young Rider Championships in 2004.

Filmography

Executive producer

• Passion Play (2010)
• True Grit (2010)
• Killing Them Softly (2012)
• Spring Breakers (2012)
• The Grandmaster (2013)
• Terminator Genisys (2015)
• What Remains of Edith Finch (2017)
• Downsizing (2017)
• The Sisters Brothers (2018)
• If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
• Wounds (2019)
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)
• Hustlers (2019)
• Bombshell (2019)
• Kajillionaire (2020)
• House of Gucci (2021)
• She Said (2022)
• Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023)
• Nimona (2023)
• Nightbitch (2024)
• The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)
• I Love Boosters (2026) Producer
• Waking Madison (2010)
• Main Street (2010)
• Catch .44 (2011)
• Lawless (2012)
• The Master (2012)
• Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
• Her (2013)
• American Hustle (2013)
• Foxcatcher (2014)
• Joy (2015)
• Wiener-Dog (2016)
• Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)
• Sausage Party (2016)
• The Bad Batch (2016)
• 20th Century Women (2016)
• Detroit (2017)
• Phantom Thread (2017)
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
• Vice (2018)
• Booksmart (2019)
• The Invite (2026)

Accolades

She has received four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Picture as a producer for the films American Hustle, Her, Phantom Thread and Zero Dark Thirty. As a producer of American Hustle, Ellison won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. She also has five Golden Globe nominations for the films Foxcatcher, Her, Joy, Zero Dark Thirty and 20th Century Women. The Producers Guild of America nominated American Hustle, Foxcatcher, Her and Zero Dark Thirty for Best Theatrical Motion Picture.

In 2012 and 2013, Ellison was nominated for subsequent BAFTA Award for Best Film and AACTA Award for Best Film recognizing Zero Dark Thirty and American Hustle respectively. She received a Gotham Award for Best Feature nomination for The Master.

In 2014, Ellison was included in the annual Time 100 list In 2018, Ellison won the Woman in Motion Award at Cannes Music Festival.

References

References

1. Leigh, Danny. (2013-02-18). "Megan Ellison, the most powerful new force in Hollywood". The Guardian.
2. (April 23, 2014). "The 100 Most Influential People – Pioneers: Megan Ellison".
3. Jacobs, Julia. (June 12, 2022). "Tony Awards 2022 Live Updates: 'A Strange Loop' Wins Best Musical". The New York Times.
4. Matthew Symonds, Larry Ellison. ''Software: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle'' Simon and Schuster, 2004. pp332-333
5. ''Software: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle'' Simon and Schuster, 2004. pp332-333
6. (June 16, 2004). "Stanford provost speaks at Sacred Heart". The Almanac News.
7. Grigoriadis, Vanessa. (March 21, 2012). "The Life of Megan Ellison, the 27-Year-Old Mega-Producer Who's on Pace to Run Hollywood".
8. Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes. (August 28, 2011). "Silicon Valley Scion Tackles Hollywood". The New York Times.
9. (October 10, 2018). "As Annapurna Stumbles, Billionaire Larry Ellison Exerts Control". Variety.
10. (March 1, 2013). "The Life of Megan Ellison, the 27-Year-Old Mega-Producer Who's on Pace to Run Hollywood".
11. (June 26, 2018). "Megan Ellison: Hollywood's latest player". Financial Times.
12. Danny Leigh, [https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/jul/08/megan-ellison-billionaire-heiress-save-movies "Megan Ellison: the billionaire heiress out to save the movies"] {{Webarchive. link. (March 8, 2017 , "The Guardian", July 8, 2011.)
13. McWeeny, Drew. (January 23, 2014). "Megan Ellison removes Annapurna Pictures from the 'Terminator: Genesis' reboot". [[HitFix]].
14. (January 16, 2014). "Oscar Nominations: Megan Ellison First Woman to Score 2 Best Picture Nods in Same Year".
15. (February 21, 2019). "Megan Ellison's Moment of Truth: Inside the Reboot of Annapurna Pictures".
16. Mia Galuppo, Rebecca Keegan. (March 6, 2024). "The Second Coming of Megan Ellison". The Hollywood Reporter.
17. (28 October 2024). "Eiza González, Poppy Liu, Taylour Paige & Will Poulter Join Boots Riley's Neon Pic 'I Love Boosters'".
18. (9 October 2024). "'Who Is Maud Dixon?' TV Adaptation In The Works From Boo Killebrew, Annapurna & Brillstein".
19. Garrahan, Matthew. (February 21, 2014). "Megan Ellison: Hollywood's latest player". [[Financial Times]].
20. Grigoriadis, Vanessa. (February 6, 2013). "The Life of Megan Ellison, the 27-Year-Old Mega-Producer Who's on Pace to Run Hollywood".
21. (August 29, 2011). "Silicon Valley Scion Tackles Hollywood (Published 2011)". The New York Times.
22. Kit, Borys. (December 13, 2010). "Jessica Chastain to Star in 'The Wettest County'".
23. Kaufman, Amy. (November 29, 2012). "Brad Pitt's 'Killing Them Softly' poised for soft box office debut". Los Angeles Times.
24. Lee, Maggie. (January 8, 2013). "Film Review: The Grandmaster".
25. Hammond, Pete. (October 14, 2019). "'Bombshell' Explodes Into Oscar Race As Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman & Margot Robbie Unveil The Fox News Roger Ailes Story".
26. Kay, Jeremy. (May 15, 2011). "Anchor Bay takes Annapurna, Benaroya, Emmett's Catch .44".
27. Cieply, Michael. (April 18, 2012). "Filmmaker's Newest Work Is About ... Something". The New York Times.
28. Sperling, Nicole. (October 11, 2018). "What Happens Next for Megan Ellison's Embattled Annapurna Pictures?".
29. Thompson, Anne. (October 10, 2018). "Annapurna's Stunning Shakeup: What the Hell Is Megan Ellison Doing?".
30. and part of ''[[The Advocate (LGBT magazine). The Advocate]]'''s annual "40 Under 40" list.[http://www.advocate.com/40-under-40-emerging-voices/2014/08/20/40-under-40-megan-ellison-makes-movies-you-talk-about "40 Under 40: Megan Ellison Makes Movies You Talk About] {{Webarchive. link. (August 21, 2014 , ''The Advocate'', August 20, 2014.)
31. (May 18, 2015). "Cannes: Megan Ellison Speaks Out for Women Filmmakers at Kering Gala". Variety.