Biography
Larry Estes began his corporate career in 1984 when he became Senior Vice President of Feature Film Acquisitions at RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. From 1987-93 he developed and operated an arm of Columbia TriStar Home Video's acquisition program, specializing in quality independent feature film development and financing. His films at CTHV include Steven Soderbergh's sex, lies, and videotape, Allison Anders' Gas Food Lodging, Carl Franklin's One False Move (co-starring and co-written by Billy Bob Thornton), John Sayles' City Of Hope and Passion Fish, Neal Jimenez & Michael Steinberg's The Waterdance, Bobcat Goldthwait's Shakes The Clown, and John Turturro's Mac. He was responsible for selection and supervision of more than 60 movies and more than $125 million in financing during his time there.
In 1992 Estes accepted the IFP/West "Findie" Award and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the Entertainment Business by both Entertainment Weekly and Premiere Magazines. In November of that year, he was the subject of a profile in the New York Times Sunday Business section entitled "Hollywood's Quiet Godfather of the Offbeat Film."
Before and after joining Seattle's ShadowCatcher Entertainment in 1998, he produced Coldblooded, Santa Fe, The Mating Habits Of The Earthbound Human, and six science-fiction films for Showtime. At ShadowCatcher he served as a producer of the landmark Sherman Alexie/Chris Eyre film Smoke Signals and was an Executive Producer of The Book Of Stars and Getting To Know You.
In 1999 in an internationally televised ceremony, he accepted The Christopher Award from the Interfaith Council for producing Smoke Signals.
Since 1989, twelve of his Columbia TriStar films premiered at the Sundance festival -- ten of them in dramatic competition. Since becoming an independent producer, five more of his films have premiered at Sundance, four of those in dramatic competition.
He recently served as a producer of Sherman Alexie's debut as writer-director, The Business Of Fancydancing and executive Producer of Ward Serrill's The Heart Of The Game, a wildly-popular documentary that premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and was released theatrically in the summer of 2006 by Miramax Films.
Since then, he produced The Dark Horse, a family drama set in the San Juan Islands of Washington State, the feature film adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's Camilla Dickinson, and the mystery-drama West Of Redemption, for writer/director Cornelia Moore, all three shot in Washington State.
From 2008 to 2013, Estes also served on the faculty of the University of Arizona in Tucson, as a Professor of Practice and taught feature film producing (not "production") to the filmmakers of The Future.
