Ian Birnie

Ian Birnie was born and raised in Toronto, attended Northwestern in Chicago, and has spent most of his professional career in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles. He was the Curator of Film and Department Head at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 1996 to 2010. Prior NYC positions include 5 years as Director of Distribution at Janus Films and 4 years as Cannes Market Coordinator for the Independent Feature Project. For 8 years he served as Project Consultant for European Film Promotion in Hamburg. He has been a programmer for the Toronto, Bangkok, Palm Springs, Perugia and Mumbai Film Festivals and has served on film juries at the Berlin, Hamptons, Abu Dhabi and Geneva Film Festivals. From 2013-18 he was Feature Programmer at the Louisiana Int’l Film Festival and in 2023 was Guest Programmer at the Rome Cinematheque, Italy. He currently lives in Los Angeles and is a consultant to the Luis Bunuel Film Institute.