‘Past Lives’ Outfit 2AM Grows Finance & Sales Unit With Hire Of Sundance Exec Julia Nelson

EXCLUSIVE: Management and production company 2AM, flying high off the back of Celine Song’s Golden Globe nominee Past Lives, is bolstering its finance and sales division with the hire of former Sundance Catalyst executive Julia Nelson.

Nelson will report to former WME & Endeavor Content exec Christine D’Souza Gelb who oversees the sales arm of 2AM.

2AM will be launching sales on two titles at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival: Sam and Andy Zuchero’s Love Me starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, and produced by 2AM, ShivHans, and AgX; and Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s Tendaberry, produced by Dweck and Flies Collective. 2AM is co-repping worldwide rights on both projects with WME, where the filmmakers are also represented.

The company has previously repped Sing J. Lee’s Accidental Getaway Driver, Andrew Semans’ Resurrection, and Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was A Simple Man.

Nelson joins the company after six years at Sundance where she led the film track at Catalyst, the Institute’s financing lab. Her focus was primarily sourcing and developing new projects in the indie feature space, mentoring filmmakers and securing financing for their work, and offering strategic guidance throughout their progress to production, sales, and distribution.

Nelson shepherded more than 50 films through Catalyst, including Nikyatu Jusu’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Nanny, Laurel Parmet’s The Starling Girl, and Francisca Alegría’s The Cow Who Sang A Song Into the Future. Documentaries she oversaw for the program include Isabel Castro’s Mija, Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s Aftershock, and Jamila Wignot’s Ailey—as well as the upcoming feature Sugarcane from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, also set to debut at Sundance.

Prior to Catalyst, Nelson supported Sundance CEO Keri Putnam and managed marketing at SFFILM, which presents the San Francisco International Film Festival, and had a stint at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

2AM, co-founded by D’Souza Gelb, David Hinojosa, and Kevin Rowe in 2021, reps clients including Savanah Leaf, A.V. Rockwell, Laurel Parmet, D. Smith, Lukas Gage, and Dominic Fike.

D’Souza Gelb, who previously handled sales on movies including The Farewell, Manchester By the Sea, Under the Skin and Midsommar, is also an executive producer on client Jack Begert’s Little Death, produced by Protozoa, AC Films, and Psycho Films.