Laura Bickford
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Laura Conde Bickford (born September 30, 1968 in New York City, New York, USA) is an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
nominated and
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
nominated film and television producer who produced ''
Traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...
'', '' Che'', '' Duplicity'', ''
Arbitrage Arbitrage (, ) is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more marketsstriking a combination of matching deals to capitalize on the difference, the profit being the difference between the market prices at which th ...
'', and ''
Beasts of No Nation ''Beasts of No Nation'' is a 2005 novel by the Nigerian-American author Uzodinma Iweala, that takes its title from Fela Kuti's 1989 album of the same name. The book won the 2005 Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Barnes & Noble ...
''. She was nominated for an Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Picture for ''Traffic'' in 2001 and an Emmy Award for ''
Citizen X ''Citizen X'' is a 1995 American television film which covers the efforts of detectives in the Soviet Union to capture an unknown serial killer of women and children in the 1980s, and the bureaucratic obstacles they encounter. The film is base ...
'' in 1996. She has been a member of Producers Branch of
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...
since 2002. She is a member of the
Producers Guild of America The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing the interests Television producer, television producers, Film producer, film producers and emerging media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership inclu ...
and was on the board of the writers and human rights organization PEN USA in Los Angeles from 2012-2018 until their merger with
PEN America PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide th ...
and is a current member of PEN's LA committee.


Career

Bickford is a graduate of
Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...
and began her career as a production assistant to
Robert Altman Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer, producer. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, known for directing subversive and sat ...
in Paris on the 1987 film ''
Beyond Therapy ''Beyond Therapy'' is a 1981 American play written by Christopher Durang. Synopsis This farcical comedy focuses on Prudence and Bruce, two Manhattanites who are seeking stable romantic relationships with the help of their psychiatrists, each of ...
''. Altman became a lifelong influence and friend. She consulted unaccredited on the financing for Altman's final film ''
A Prairie Home Companion ''A Prairie Home Companion'' was a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed ''Live from He ...
''. After working with Altman, Bickford moved to London and went on to produce over fifty music videos, both in the US and in Europe for Vivid Productions. She produced her first feature ''Citizen X'' for HBO Pictures in 1996. The film was written and directed by
Chris Gerolmo Chris Gerolmo is a Golden Globe nominated screenwriter, director, and singer-songwriter best known for writing the screenplay for the multi-Academy Award nominated film ''Mississippi Burning'' and the less successful ''Miles from Home'' starrin ...
with
Stephen Rea Stephen Rea ( ; born October 31, 1946) is an Irish actor. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he began his career as a member of Dublin's Focus Theatre, and played many roles on the stage and on Irish television. He came to the attention of inte ...
,
Donald Sutherland Donald McNichol Sutherland (17 July 1935 – 20 June 2024) was a Canadian actor. With a career spanning six decades, he received List of awards and nominations received by Donald Sutherland, numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award ...
, and
Max von Sydow Max von Sydow (; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish and French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...
. Bickford was nominated for the Emmy and Golden Globe and won the Cable Ace Award for best film made for television. Bickford optioned the film rights to the British television mini series about the heroin trade in the UK & Pakistan and spent four years researching the war on drugs in the US, South America, and Mexico for a US adaptation. The film, ''Traffic'', won four Academy Awards for
Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * As ...
for Steven Soderbergh, Best Supporting Actor for
Benicio Del Toro Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (; born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican actor. List of awards and nominations received by Benicio del Toro, His accolades include an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy ...
,
Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best ...
, and Best Editing. The film was nominated for over 300 awards internationally and Del Toro also won the BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. In the two-part epic ''Che'', Bickford again worked with Soderbergh and Del Toro. Del Toro and Bickford worked with
Terrence Malick Terrence Frederick Malick (; born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. Malick began his career as part of the New Hollywood generation of filmmakers and received awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, and ...
on the script for '' Part 2'' and spent years traveling around the world interviewing the last living members of the
Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...
and researching the life of
Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...
. The film was selected for competition at Cannes in 2008 and Del Toro won the Best Actor award. Bickford produced El Yuma, directed by Del Toro and part of the omnibus '' 7 Days In Havana'' which was selected for Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2012. In 2012, she produced ''
Arbitrage Arbitrage (, ) is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more marketsstriking a combination of matching deals to capitalize on the difference, the profit being the difference between the market prices at which th ...
'' with
Richard Gere Richard Tiffany Gere ( ; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began appearing in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in ''Looking for Mr. Goodbar (film), Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1977) and a starring role in ''Days of Hea ...
which was the highest grossing day and date released film. In 2015, Bickford and Fiona Druckenmiller backed Cary Fukunaga’s film ''Beasts of No Nation'' that sold to Netflix and became their first theatrically launched film


Personal life

Bickford is married to Stephen M. Graham who is a literature professor at Bard College, founder of New York Theater Workshop, and the son of the late
Katharine Graham Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper, ''The Washington Post'', from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on the Watergate scandal, wh ...
, publisher of The Washington Post. She was married to the actor
Sam Bottoms Samuel John Bottoms (October 17, 1955 – December 16, 2008) was an American actor and producer. Early life Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California in 1955, the third son of James "Bud" Bottoms (a sculptor and art teacher) and Betty ...
, who died in 2008. She is the sister of Emily Bickford Lansbury and sister-in-law of George Lansbury. Her mother, Jewelle Bickford, was an investment banker with the Rothschild Group from 1984 to 2008 in New York City. In 2000 she became the only female global partner at the firm. In 2020 she retired as partner at Evercore Wealth Management. She is a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...
and founded the task force on the role of women in economic and political development in the Middle East and Southeast Asia of the Council's Women and Foreign Policy. She is a member of C200, board member emeritus of
Women for Women International Women for Women International (WfWI) is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that provides practical and moral support to female survivors of war. WfWI helps such women rebuild their lives after war's devastation through a year-long tiered prog ...
and
Women's Media Center Women's Media Center (WMC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit women's organization in the United States founded in 2005 by writers and activists Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem.
, and a Co-founder, former Board President and a Co-chair Emeritus o
Paradigm for Parity
a coalition of companies and business leaders committed to closing the corporate gender leadership gap for women of all races, cultures, and backgrounds. Her father, Nathaniel Bickford, was a partner at the law firm Lankenau Kovner & Bickford for 25 years and then Windels Marx Laine & Mittendorf until he retired in 2002. He wrote the memoir ''Late Bloomer: A Memoir of School Days'' in 2008. In the 1970s, her father represented contemporary artists introduced to him by Bickford's godfather,
Klaus Kertess Klaus Kertess (July 16, 1940, New York City, New York – October 8, 2016, New York City, New York) was an American art gallerist, art critic and curator (including of the 1995 Whitney Biennial). He grew up in Westchester County north of New York ...
, and traded art for fees most notably with
Brice Marden Nicholas Brice Marden Jr. (October 15, 1938 – August 9, 2023) was an American artist generally described as minimalist, although his work has roots in abstract expressionism, color field painting. and lyrical abstraction. He lived and worked i ...
,
David Novros David Ross Novros (born 1941), is an American artist. He is known for his minimalist geometric paintings, shaped canvases, and his use of color. He has also studied fresco painting extensively. Early life and education David Novros was born on ...
,
Joanna Pousette-Dart Joanna Pousette-Dart (born 1947) is an American abstract art, abstract artist, based in New York City.Rose, Barbara"Joanna Pousette-Dart: with Barbara Rose,"''The Brooklyn Rail'', June 2019. Retrieved September 4, 2020.Johnson, Ken''The New York ...
, and
Lynda Benglis Lynda Benglis (born October 25, 1941) is an American sculptor and visual artist known especially for her wax paintings and poured latex sculptures. She maintains residences in New York City, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kastellorizo, Greece, and Ahmedaba ...
. She is a descendant of passengers from the
Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reac ...
,
Francis Cooke Francis Cooke (c.1583 – April 7, 1663) was a Leiden Separatist, who went to America in 1620 on the Pilgrim ship ''Mayflower'', which arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts. He was a founding member of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a signer of ...
and Peter Browne, on both her maternal and paternal side.


Filmography

* ''Citizen X'' (1995) (Executive Producer) * '' Playing God'' (1997) (Producer) * '' Bongwater'' (1997) (Producer) * ''Traffic'' (2000) (Producer) * ''
Winter Passing ''Winter Passing'' is a 2005 American comedy-drama film directed by playwright Adam Rapp and starring Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrell, Amelia Warner, Amy Madigan, and Dallas Roberts. Rapp's directorial debut, the film premiered at the 2 ...
'' (2005) (Executive Producer) * '' Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus'' (2006) (Producer) * '' Chicago 10'' (2007) (Executive Producer) * '' Che: Part One'' (2008) (Producer) * '' Che: Part Two'' (2008) (Producer) * ''Duplicity'' (2009) (Producer) * ''Arbitrage'' (2012) (Producer) * ''7 Days in Havana'' (2012) (Executive Producer - El Yuma segment) * ''Beasts of No Nation'' (2015) (Executive Producer) * '' Finding Altamira'' (2016) (Executive Producer) * ''
Sweetness in the Belly ''Sweetness in the Belly'' is a 2019 drama film directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, based on the novel of the same name by Camilla Gibb. It had its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Plot In the 1960s, Lilly, a Bri ...
'' (2019) (Executive Producer)


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bickford, Laura 1962 births Living people American television producers American women film directors Sarah Lawrence College alumni 21st-century American women