Jean Picker Firstenberg is an American who served as the President and CEO of the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

from 1980 through 2007. She was the Institute's second CEO and the only female to have held that title. At the time of her appointment, she was an executive at the Markle Foundation.

Early life and education

Firstenberg is the daughter of

Eugene Picker Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

, former president of Loew's movie theaters, and sister of David V. Picker, former head of production for

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

Education

Firstenberg graduated from Boston University's College of Communications.

Career

Before AFI, Firstenberg worked as a program officer at the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation in New York City. She also served as director of Princeton University's publications office. She also chaired the University of Georgia's Peabody Awards Committee. She also served on the Executive Committee of the Women's Sports Foundation. Firstenberg served as president and CEO of the American Film Institute from 1980 to 2007. Upon her retirement from AFI, Firstenberg received an AFI Life Achievement Award for service to the institute and was named president emerita and a lifetime trustee. During her years at AFI she saw the institute gaining the campus of

Immaculate Heart College Immaculate Heart College was a private, Catholic college located in Los Angeles, California. The college offered various courses including art and religious education studies. By June 1906, six young women had become the first graduates of the ...

in Los Angeles and to the

AFI Conservatory The AFI Conservatory is a private not-for-profit graduate film school in the Hollywood Hills district of Los Angeles. Students (called "Fellows") learn from the masters in a collaborative, hands-on production environment with an emphasis on st ...

being accredited by both the

National Association of Schools of Art and Design The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), founded in 1944, is an accrediting organization of colleges, schools and universities in the United States. The organization establishes standards for graduate and undergraduate degrees ...

and the Accrediting Committee of Senior Colleges and Universities of the

Western Association of Schools and Colleges The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) was an organization providing School accreditation, accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary school, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, ...

; to AFI's embrace of digital technology, and to the opening of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. She also saw the AFI move away from the film preservation business, and in 2002, the institute attempted to enter the market for pre-Oscar awards ceremonies and found their televised show poorly attended, lacking in stars and discontinued due to low ratings. Firstenberg saw the relaunch of the

AFI Catalog of Feature Films The ''AFI Catalog of Feature Films'', also known as the ''AFI Catalog'', is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute (AFI) to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema in ...

and the launch of the AFI

Los Angeles International Film Festival LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

. Firstenberg is a member of the California State University Board of Trustees

Books

Firstenberg has been involved with two books about the AFI. In 2017, ''BECOMING AFI: 50 Years Inside the American Film Institute'', written with James Hindman, was published. The book covers the history of the AFI and how it evolved from 1965 to the present. In 2014, she edited ''THE AFI CONSERVATORY: Toni Vellani on the Practice of Filmmaking'' compiled by Gary Winick, AFI Class of 1986.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Firstenberg, Jean Mount Holyoke College alumni Boston University College of Communication alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Women nonprofit executives American women chief executives 21st-century American women Presidents of the American Film Institute