Black Bear, the award-winning studio behind such acclaimed films as NYAD, The Imitation Game, I Care A Lot, and Mudbound, announced today that Courtney L. Cunniff has joined the company’s film team as Senior Vice President of Film. In her role, Cunniff will focus on the development, packaging, and production of Black Bear’s growing slate, which includes such upcoming projects as David Mackenzie’s Relay starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and Sam Worthington; Andrew Patterson’s The Rivals of Amziah King starring Matthew McConaughey; and Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams starring Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones.

Cunniff comes to Black Bear from eOne/Hasbro, where she served as Vice President, Production and Development & Acquisitions for film titles under both banners. There, she sourced and assessed development material and oversaw the path to production for a number of feature films such as The Woman King starring Viola Davis, The Creator starring John David Washington, Everything’s Going to Be Great starring Bryan Cranston and Allison Janney and served as a producer on Nicolas Pesce’s Visitation starring Olivia Cooke. Cunniff was also previously an executive at Focus Features, where she worked on key titles including Downton Abbey, The Mustang, The High Note, and Academy Award winner Promising Young Woman.

Cunniff will work out of Black Bear’s Los Angeles office and report to CEO Teddy Schwarzman and President of Production & Operations, Michael Heimler.