Cynthia Lopez. Image credit: POV
Cynthia Lopez, who has been the executive vice president and co-exec producer of PBS’ POV doc series, was named to succeed the very successful Katherine Oliver as the City’s new commissioner of the Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting. As reported in the various trades including The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Indiewire, Lopez will be introduced at a Friday morning press conference.
Lopez takes office some four months after the de Blasio admin came into office. Some had read into that somewhat tardy announcement a concern that the new mayor wouldn’t be fully behind the successful production juggernaut launched in the Bloomberg admin. In this analysis, de Blasio instead addressed his campaign’s initial concerns on education, income fairness and housing.
The film and video production communities, now claimed as pouring $7.1 billion per year into the City’s economy, have been on a roll, and didn’t miss a steady hand at the helm for the interim. Lopez’ long experience at POV – she’s been there since 2000 – could point to support for production not as Hollywood-centric as has been the case.
