Benjamin Carl Feldman

Benjamin C. Feldman is a theater and independent film entertainment attorney, also practicing in the areas of book publishing, television, and other media. His varied clientele includes producers, artists, publicists, talent agencies, venues, casting directors and not-for-profit organizations.

In film, Mr. Feldman has acted as production counsel for both feature films and documentary films.  His feature films include The Discoverers (2012), starring Griffin Dunne; Girls Against Boys (2012); Rabbit Hole (2010), which garnered a Best Actress Oscar nomination for its star and producer Nicole Kidman; Black Dynamite (2009), starring Michael Jai White and Arsenio Hall, for which Mr. Feldman raised a portion of the financing; Rocket Science (2007); Keane (2004); Kissing Jessica Stein (2001); and Southern Comfort (2001).  Documentary films for which Mr. Feldman served as production counsel include Paul Goodman Changed My Life (2011), about openly-gay leftist philosopher and writer Paul Goodman; Earth Days (2009), about the environmental movement of the 60s and 70s; Prodigal Sons (2008), about the filmmaker’s return to her high school reunion as a transgender woman; Second Skin (2008), about the lives of computer gamers; Trumbo (2007), about McCarthy-era blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo; Deadline (2004), about death row prisoners; and Tying The Knot (2004), about same-sex marriage.

As a producer representative, Mr. Feldman has made historic sales both at Sundance (Deadline, the first Sundance documentary sold to a major television network for primetime) and elsewhere, particularly in the field of documentaries.  He sold Tying the Knot at Tribeca Film Festival, Second Skin at South by Southwest, and Trumbo at Toronto.  Earth Day was pre-sold at Sundance and was also chosen to be the Festival’s Closing Night film.  He handles U.S. distribution for the children’s movies The Secret of Kells (Belgium 2009) and Mia and the Migoo (France, 2008).

Mr. Feldman’s work as a theatrical attorney has been acknowledged at the Tony® Awards ceremony twice, and his clients have been recognized for best Play Revival (Producer), Best Actress in a Play, Best Orchestrations, Best Score, and Best Book of a Musical.  On Broadway he was production counsel for Memphis The Musical (2009), which won the 2010 Tony® Awards for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score of a Musical, and Best Orchestrations, and for Colin Quinn’s Long Story Short (2010).  Other Broadway production counsel credits include the upcoming Gigi revival.  Off-Broadway he has served as production counsel for Spalding Gray:  Stories Left To Tell.  His legal writing for the theater includes his contribution (as one of two attorneys asked to write a chapter) to the Commercial Theater Institute’s Guide to Producing Plays and Musicals.

In television, Mr. Feldman represents many executive producers’ shows, including The Substitute (2011), created by executive producer and client Phear Creative, and Adult Swim (2008).

Mr. Feldman’s artist representation includes writer/director Daniel Barnz (whose body of work includes the 2012 feature film Won’t Back Down starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, and Holly Hunter), multiple award-winning and Tony® Award-nominated actress Tovah Feldshuh, Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show, and actor David Alan Basche (who stars with Kristen Johnston on the TVLand series The Exes).

He serves on the Board of Directors for Ars Nova and the Hourglass Group.