As senior vice president of original programming, production and digital content for AMC and Sundance TV, Joel Stillerman oversees every aspect of content creation across all platforms. He joined AMC in 2008 and added Sundance TV to his port folio in 2015. With the Vanguard Award for Programmers, the NCTA is recognizing his innovation, leadership and individual achievement in content creation.
“In less than a decade,” Stillerman said, “AMC has transformed from a movie channel into a must-have television network, and that has happened on the strength of original programming offered to viewers within the cable TV ecosystem. The notion of ‘television’ continues to shift and expand before our eyes, but AMC’s growth and success has been driven by delivering event television on a linear network in a multichannel world, so this recognition from the industry and NCTA is particularly meaningful to me and to our entire company.”
Stillerman joined AMC with more than 20 years of experience in developing, producing and writing for film and television. His major credits included the features Blow and Rounders; MTV television franchises MTV Unplugged and the MTV Video Music Awards; and HBO’s A Lesson Before Dying and Sometimes in April. In 2003, he founded Yolo Films, an independent film and television production company that produces content for HBO, MTV and VH1, among other networks.
Before starting his own company, Stiller man was executive vice president of development and production at Walden Media. During his time at Walden, he spearheaded the company’s mission to build a brand around young adult literature, supervising the acquisition and development of the The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Holes, and helped establish Walden as a credible brand in the family entertainment space.
In 1995, Stillerman co-founded Spanky Pictures with Ted Demme. The co-founders oversaw all aspects of the company’s operations, specifically finding, developing and producing film and television projects. Earlier in his career, he was vice president of production and executive producer at MTV Networks, where he oversaw the majority of original production for the channel.
Stillerman received a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Made-for-TV Movie (A Lesson Before Dying, 1999). He has also been honored with a Peabody Award, a Humanitas Prize and a number of CableACE Awards.
Stillerman holds a bachelor of arts in mass communication and television from Emerson College in Boston.
