Megan Ellison has stepped into the spotlight as a film producer to be reckoned with.

Young (26-years-old), well financed (her famous father Larry Ellison – Oracle), well connected, Megan Ellison is on a meteoric rise in the international film scene. Megan Ellison’s production/distribution company is called Annapurna Pictures. She is putting her good taste, money and influence behind some pretty extraordinary movies. Annapurna Pictures has 2 films in competition this year at Cannes, Lawless and Killing Them Softly.

Megan Ellison started quietly in the business of film production in 2006. Her first financial investment was a psychodrama Waking Madison (2010), which we did not hear much about followed by investment in several other movies including Passion Play (TIFF 2011) and despite starring Megan Fox, Bill Murray and Mickey Rourke was a disaster. Megan Ellison is a young woman with tenacity and vision who obviously knows how to pick her friends and advisors well, to follow good advice and make use of important connections. She managed to inspire enough confidence in herself and her vision with her father’s company (Octopus Holdings) to access some significant funds for Annapurna Pictures. She and her friend and business associate Michael Benaroya (31) are both producers of Lawless.  Roeg Sutherland and Micah Green with Creative Artists Agency are reported to be important contacts. As fortunes improved, Megan Ellison has made bolder moves and developed tight ties to Creative Artists.

She and her brother David Ellison, who owns his own film company Skydance Products, appeared in very small print as financial backers of The Coen Brothers’ movie True Grit in 2010. David Ellison, (29-years old) has offices atParamount Pictures and recently backed Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol. David and Megan otherwise have very different ideas about what films to put their money behind. Megan has struck out into new territory going after edgy projects that have attracted big talent in the industry. Megan Ellison and her company Annapurna Pictures are causing a huge stir at Cannes.

Bold moves by Megan Ellison & Annapurna Pictures thus far:

Megan Ellison has Lawless and Killing Them Softly in competition at Cannes this year.

Lawless directed by John Hillcoat just premiered at Cannes in contention for the coveted Palme D’Or. The movie is a violent Prohibition Era, character driven, crime drama, set in Franklin County, Virginia. The film is based on the novelThe Wettest County in the World, a true story by Matt Bondurant, a descendant of the real rumrunners. Scriptwriter and rock musician Nick Cave (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) says he wanted the movie to draw a strong parallel between the crime wave created by Prohibition 1920 – 1933 and the crime resulting from the modern day ‘epically failing’ war on drugs. Cave also co-wrote the music. The film follows three brothers who’s bootlegging empire is threatened by corrupt law enforcement agents.