In an industry driven by creative vision and complex market dynamics, leadership requires a balance of strategic insight and authentic relationship-building. For nearly three decades, Julie Kroll has helped independent films find their way from development to audiences around the world. As CEO of Summerland Entertainment, she combines international sales expertise with film packaging, financing, and production, building relationships that connect filmmakers, financiers, distributors, and global buyers.
From Western New York to the World
Julie grew up in Amherst, New York, just outside Buffalo. As a child, she was drawn to travel and other cultures; where friends kept posters of musicians on their walls, she kept photographs of airplanes and cities she hoped to visit one day.
Her professional journey started with her father’s business as a manufacturers’ representative, selling licensed products, including Power Rangers and Disney items, to department stores and drugstore chains. The work introduced her to sales and relationship-building skills, which she would carry into a different industry entirely.
A conversation with someone at Warner Bros. redirected her toward film. Julie began as an assistant to a television producer, then joined a small international sales and production company. Within six months, she attended the Cannes Film Festival, where she started selling films directly. She went on to co-found Axiom Entertainment, acquiring and selling film libraries and international rights, and later Soho Entertainment, producing and distributing family and international action titles.
Over time, Julie built connections with distributors, including Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort, and Patrick Wachsberger, and began advising producers using the perspective of international buyers and domestic across multiple territories while also producing and financing independent films.
When asked to describe herself in one word, she chose passionate, citing her attachment to every stage of filmmaking, from script discovery to structuring financing to connecting films with audiences. Julie has been in international film sales and acquisitions since 1996.
The Learning of Psychology and Marketing Influence
Julie credits her mother’s teaching of humility, resilience, and the importance of holding onto her own vision. Her father, through his sales work, taught her that business depends on listening and long-term relationships.
Julie also names industry mentors: Danny Dimbort of Millennium Films, who encouraged her to negotiate with confidence, and John Hyde, former CEO of Liberty’s Starz Media, whose company she consulted for over several years. That experience exposed her to how theatrical, home entertainment, television, production, and animation divisions operate together.
Her academic background in psychology and marketing gave her the tools for understanding people and positioning projects for audiences. She also points to her New York upbringing as an influence on her direct communication style.
A Pivotal Moment and Early Films
Julie traces her interest in storytelling to childhood viewings of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, alongside her mother’s introduction to films like Roman Holiday. These experiences shaped her view of film as something that builds empathy and offers audiences a break from daily routine.
Early Hurdles: Learning Alongside Building
Julie describes her early challenges as personal as much as professional: finding her voice and learning to work with several personalities in an industry she describes as full of strong opinions. She says not everyone will respond well to a given approach, and that treating people with respect while maintaining her own integrity mattered more than trying to please everyone.
The Foundation of Summerland Entertainment
Summerland Entertainment grew out of Julie’s observation that independent films often struggled to find the right partners and financial support, despite their quality. Julie believes the strongest independent films are built by considering both the creative vision and the realities of the international marketplace from the very beginning. Drawing on decades of experience representing buyers, she helps producers strengthen projects before they reach the market, increasing their financing potential and long-term commercial value.
She wanted to build a company that filmmakers could rely on for direct feedback and connections to the right people.
The company’s name comes from Summerland, a place near Santa Barbara where she spent weekends with her parents. Her production company, Do or Do Not Films, references a line from Star Wars that reflects her approach to commitment.
The company’s focus has shifted over time. It began with representing international buyers and has moved toward earlier involvement in the filmmaking process, including financing and talent attachment.
Today, Summerland Entertainment works with producers from the earliest stages of development, helping shape scripts, attach talent, structure financing, and position projects for the international marketplace, the network that spans North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australia, and the Middle East.
Packaging, Financing, and Global Positioning
Summerland Entertainment offers consulting and packaging services for independent films, working with producers, financiers, sales companies, and distributors to move projects from development into the marketplace. Julie’s work involves script analysis, casting strategy, financing strategy, and international market positioning. Because her background is in representing buyers, she evaluates projects from that perspective from the outset.
Julie works with a team of script readers who provide coverage and analysis, aiming for a consistent standard across submissions, and describes evaluating projects on their merits rather than existing tie-ups. Throughout her career, Julie has been involved with projects through buyer representation, financing, and executive producing, including The King’s Speech, John Wick, The Hunger Games, Twilight, Braven, Jobs, Vamps, Lucky Strike, and Princess, among others.
Julie executive produced Braven, Jobs, Lucky Strike WW2 – battle of the bulge (which is currently in theatres with Rod Lurie directing and Scott Eastwood starring), and Princess in post-production, a romantic comedy starring Lucy Hale in which a boy meets a girl, they fall in love, but his devoted dog hates the girl. A fun romcom.
Looking ahead, she is expanding into executive producing and earlier-stage development, helping producers strengthen scripts and assemble support before projects reach the marketplace.
Connecting People and Giving Direct Feedback
Julie describes her primary responsibility as bringing together filmmakers, financiers, distributors, and buyers, and solving problems that arise between them. She says, “Most people package films from a producer’s perspective. You package films from the buyer’s perspective. Now, finance people laugh. If you finance it based on equity, you have to think for both perspectives”.
She also sees giving direct, sometimes unwelcome, feedback as part of the job, noting that this kind of input often strengthens a project. Her network extends beyond film into politics, philanthropy, sports, and the arts, which she says broadens her perspective on where ideas can come from.
The Vision for Summerland Entertainment
Julie sees Summerland Entertainment continuing to move from representing buyers toward producing, bundling, and backing independent films directly. She visions to build a long-term financing platform for independent films, noting that many strong projects fail to secure finance despite their quality.
Julie is drawn to commercially viable films that also carry meaningful subject matter, citing true stories and elevated genre films as areas of particular interest. She points to Get Out as an example of a film that combined originality with commercial success, and expresses interest in identifying similar projects, particularly in horror.
Advice for Aspiring Women Leaders
Julie’s advice focuses on pursuing genuine interests and writing down specific goals, whether through lists or vision boards, as a way to recognize opportunities that align with stated objectives, while stressing that goal-setting alone is not sufficient without follow-through.
She advises staying willing to start at lower positions and to keep learning throughout a career, and places particular weight on reputation, noting that people remember how they were treated more than the details of a specific deal.
In 2019, Screen Daily recognized Julie as one of its Key U.S. Theatrical Buyers, a trade publication distinction within the international film industry. She continues to represent film distributors while producing and backing independent films, with a career in international film sales and acquisitions since 1996.
Julie Kroll’s career reflects a consistent thread: connections built over time, applied across sales, packaging, and backing roles within independent film. After nearly three decades in international film, Julie continues to build bridges between creative ambition and commercial opportunity. Through Summerland Entertainment, she works with filmmakers, financiers, distributors, and international buyers to help independent films reach audiences around the world. Today, Julie Kroll continues to package, finance, and executive produce independent films while building strategic partnerships that help film
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