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Jon Fougner is a film producer, journalist, and attorney. An active film investor, Jon has supported independent filmmakers for over fifteen years, since advising on film investments at Goldman Sachs. He is known for launching Facebook Film and serving alongside Tony-winner Andy Sandberg on the producing team for Application Pending, lauded for its "tour-de-force" performance and winner of the Broadway World Award for Best Off-Broadway Play.
Jon executive produced Laura Lionetta's debut film The Strawberry Jam, a short awarded by Chicago Arthouse with the Charlie Chaplin Award for the Best Short Film of 2023. Jon also executive produced The Folly of Paris, Or, the Original Snub, will begin its festival run in 2024 with a slated premiere at an Oscar-qualifying festival. He also holds a producer credit on feature film Her Composition, which holds a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. In addition to his work in narrative fiction, Jon has been involved in investigative journalism and documentary projects. He produced The Worst of the Worst: Portrait of a Supermax Prison, a documentary film exposing the danger of solitary confinement that in 2021 successfully led to the closure of Connecticut state's Northern Correctional Institution.
Jon's journalism has shined a light on emerging talent from film festivals. For example, two years before its full-length version was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, Jon was the only reporter to cover Damien Chazelle's short film Whiplash at its Sundance debut. Similarly, he covered Ava DuVernay's distribution strategies before her 2017 Oscar nomination. His other work has included some of Indiewire's most popular festival articles, ranging from distilling for filmmakers advice from Dolby and Skywalker Sound executives to breaking news about the Sundance Artist Services distribution platform, a hallmark Keri Putnam's 2011 - 2021 tenure as head of the festival.
Jon's work in technology for filmmakers has garnered him repeat invitations as guest speaker at the American Pavilion at Cannes, where he has educated filmmakers on topics like online distribution and social marketing. Publications ranging from The Hollywood Reporter to the Rutgers University Press book On-Demand Culture have covered his talks, and FilmEmerge dubbed his advice to filmmakers "one of the five smartest things said" at Cannes. Other speaking engagements range from Variety's Future of Film Summit, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Festival do Rio keynote, to the annual conference of the Producers Guild of America, alongside Kevin Smith.
