Amy Baer has been appointed president of film and television at Artists Equity, the studio founded by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, as the company expands its pipeline under a new theatrical strategy. She will report to Affleck, who serves as CEO, and chief operating officer Dillon West. In a statement, Affleck praised Baer as a “world-class executive and producer,” highlighting her mix of studio leadership and independent production experience.
Baer arrives with three decades in the business, including 17 years at Sony Pictures and a four-year stint launching CBS Films. She founded Gidden Media in 2012 and later led Landline Pictures from 2020 to 2023, a label aimed at films for audiences over 50. Her producing credits include “Last Vegas,” “Mary Shelley,” “Brian Banks” and the Netflix romantic drama “Purple Hearts,” alongside recent work on “The Apprentice.” Baer called Artists Equity “a leading home for resonant, artist-driven storytelling” and said she is “thrilled to join Ben [and] Matt” to build the company’s next chapter.
The leadership move follows a three-year agreement announced in June under which Sony Pictures will finance and distribute Artists Equity’s theatrically released films worldwide, with the studio retaining the option to co-finance individual projects. The slate cited in connection with that deal includes Joe Carnahan’s action title “RIP,” Ben Affleck’s thriller “Animals,” and a new adaptation of “Kiss of the Spider-Woman” directed by Bill Condon and starring Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna. Past titles from the banner include “Air” and “The Instigators.”
Artists Equity, founded in 2022 with backing from Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, has positioned itself around profit-sharing with creative teams, pitching a model designed to align incentives across cast and crew. Affleck has described the approach as an effort to build fairer outcomes in an industry disrupted by streaming economics, while keeping a strong emphasis on films made for theatrical play. Baer’s appointment signals an intent to scale that model with an executive who blends studio acumen with producer-level relationships.
