Gretchen McGowan was the head of production for Goldcrest Features in New York City, a new branch of the company's established London-based sales and post-production divisions. Goldcrest is developing a slate of 3-4 productions each year in the $5-15 million budget range.
She was co-producer of Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes. Her recent credits include co-producing Jon Hart and Matthew Kaufman's Plato's Retreat documentary American Swing; and line-producing Merchant Ivory's The City of Your Final Destination.
Ms. McGowan was for four years the head of production at HD Net Films. Among the 15 features that she oversaw there were Steven Soderbergh's Bubble; Brian De Palma's Redacted; Hal Hartley's Fay Grim; Matt Tauber's The Architect; Zoe Cassavetes' Broken English; Katherine Dieckmann's Diggers; and Alex Gibney's acclaimed documentary features Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and the Academy Award-nominated Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.
Earlier, from late 1999 to early 2003, Ms. McGowan was head of production at Open City Films and its digital production division, Blow Up Pictures. Among the films that she shephereded there were, as producer, Blow Up's Love in the Time of Money, directed by Peter Mattei; Nicole Holofcener's Lovely & Amazing; and, as co-producer, Open City's The Guys, directed by Jim Simpson, also for Focus Features release.
She worked as line producer on such notable independent features as James Mangold's Heavy; Vincent Gallo's Buffalo 66; James Toback's Two Girls and a Guy; Jay Anania's The Citizen; Mary Harron's American Psycho; and Daniel Minahan's Series 7 (also as co-producer).
Ms. McGowan also worked at developing and securing distribution for a number of documentary features. Among them were Jyll Johnstone's Martha + Ethel (which she associate-produced); Nicholas Barker's Unmade Beds; and Matthew Diamond's Dancemaker (which received an Academy Award nomination).
Focus Features
