Film Forum Director to Step Down

New York Times

13 hours ago

When Karen Cooper, the longtime director of Film Forum, the nonprofit art-house cinema in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, stepped down from the role in 2023 after 50 years, she had an eye on her successor years in advance.
That was Sonya Chung, 52, the theater's deputy director. She took over the top job from Ms. Cooper in the summer of 2023.
But now, the position is unexpectedly open again after the organization announced on Monday that Chung would be stepping down at the end of the year. No reason was given for her departure, and she declined an interview request.
In a statement, she said she was stepping down 'for much the same reasons I accepted the position: I love Film Forum and want it to thrive, mature and remain deeply anchored as a N.Y.C. gem that means so much to so many people.' She added, 'This is the right and best time for the next evolution of leadership.'
Chung began working at Film Forum in 2003 as the director of development. She oversaw the organization's fund-raising before leaving in 2007 to write two novels. (She also taught literature and writing for three years at Columbia University and for nine years at Skidmore College, both in New York.) She returned in 2018 as a programming consultant and a member of the advisory committee, and was hired as deputy director in 2020.
It was her cultivated eye that impressed Cooper, who took over the nonprofit cinema that was founded by two film buffs, Peter Feinstein and Sandy Miller, and beginning in 1972 transformed it into a $6 million-a-year operation.
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