Featured Alumni

Jonathan King (MFA 92)

Since his days as a member of the second class to graduate from the brand new MFA program in Sarasota, Florida he has risen through positions at some of the most well known production companies in the U.S.

He started his film career in MGM/UA’s New York office, scouting books, theater, and independent films. He was an acquisitions and production executive at Miramax Films for several years, working alongside an extremely talented and driven group of young executives who contributed to the company’s early explosive growth.

For eight years, Jonathan was the president of Laurence Mark Productions, an independent production company based at Sony Pictures. Some of the movies he worked on there were Dreamgirls, The Lookout, and Finding Forrester.

Later, Jonathan was Executive Vice President of Production at Focus Features, the specialty film division of Universal Studios that brought to the screen Brokeback Mountain.

Jonathan King presently serves as Executive Vice President of Production at Participant Media who released the acclaimed films, Good Night and Good Luck and An Inconvenient Truth. He oversees Participant's slate of narrative feature films.

The Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa has recently bestowed upon Jonathan the honor of a Florida State University "Grad Made Good".

Barry Jenkins (BFA 03)

Barry was our first winner of the Florida Commerce Credit Union Pathfinder Award for $5000. The award is given to a Film School graduate who demonstrates exceptional promise in the industry.

He was recently chosen as a nominee for the 2008 Gotham Independent Film Award in the Breakthrough Director category with awards to be announced 12.02.08.

He has also been picked out by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the "25 New Faces In Independent Film"

"Leave it to a Florida-by-way-of-L.A. transplant to make arguably the definitive film about contemporary San Francisco" is Filmmaker's introduction to Barry and a review of his feature film Medicine for Melancholy.

Barry's film won the Audience Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival and is being screened in numerous high level film festivals around the U.S. including SXSW, Sarasota, Philadelphia, Boston and L.A.

Receiving raves reviews upon its festival premier, M4M has been picked up by IFC (Independent Film Channel) for distribution.

For all the accolades that Mr. Jenkins has been gathering lately, we'd say that was a $5000 well spent.