Vicente spent nearly a decade as the Executive Director of the not-for-profit Independent Filmmaker Project (now the Gotham Film & Media Institute).[3] At IFP, she founded the Made in NY Media Center, a partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. The Made in NY Media Center by IFP was an incubator for start-ups at the intersection of storytelling and technology.[4]
She is recognized as a leading figure of the digital film revolution, having co-founded pioneering digital production companies Blow Up Pictures[5] and HDNet Films,[6] which she launched with partners Jason Kliot, Mark Cuban, and Todd Wagner. These companies ushered in a new era of digital filmmaking that transformed the landscape of American independent film production and distribution.
In 1998, Vicente and Kliot founded Blow Up Pictures, the first digital production company in the United States.[15] Their first film, Chuck & Buck, was the first digital film produced and distributed in the US. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards in 2001.[16] Under the Blow Up banner, Vicente and Kliot also produced such films as Lovely and Amazing, Series 7: The Contenders, and Love in the Time of Money.
HDNet Films
In 2003, Vicente and Kliot co-founded HDNet Films with Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner. The company produced 18 films in five years, all shot on digital video. The HDNet Films production of Steven Soderbergh's Bubble was the first film ever to be released "day-and-date," in the United States, simultaneously opening across theatrical, cable and satellite television, and home video platforms.[17] This innovative distribution strategy allowed consumers to choose how, when and where they wished to see a film.
Vicente was appointed Executive Director and Co-Head of TIFF in August 2018 where she ran the festival, the Lightbox film theater complex, and year-round programming. [20]
While at TIFF, Vicente, in collaboration with Co-Head Cameron Bailey, navigated the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic for the organization while spearheading a new strategic plan.[21] She oversaw a reorganization of TIFF with the aim to ensure a more sustainable path to long-term stability, led a comprehensive digital strategy and innovation plan for the company, including the strategy and implementation of a fast pivot to digital for the organization’s year-round cinema operations and a hybrid model for the Festival. She increased industry partnerships, with a focus on partners led by or serving historically excluded communities, and created a new property, the TIFF Tribute Awards gala.[22]
Sundance Institute and Film Festival
In September 2021, Vicente was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Sundance Institute, the nonprofit arts organization founded by Robert Redford.[23][24] In this role, she oversaw the Sundance Film Festival as well as the Institute's many year-round programs to support independent storytelling artists around the world through labs, workshops, and educational resources. Vicente has helped to successfully sustain and expand the Institute’s support of global storytellers and set it up to continue its meaningful work supporting artists and connecting their projects with audiences worldwide. She helped bring the Festival back in person, all the while making the Festival more accessible by welcoming an online community.[25] During her tenure, the Institute has created new funding opportunities for artists with fellowships to uplift underrepresented storytellers, forged relationships to ensure that artist programs could continue their vital in-person labs, and expanded the opportunity for artists internationally with new Festivals in Asia and the Sundance Film Festival CDMX in Mexico City.
Boards and institutions
Jerusalem International Film Lab Advisory Board
Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema Advisory board[26]
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