John Vanco, longtime SVP and GM of arthouse IFC Center in NYC has joined Netflix as film programmer for the streamer’s cinemas.
“I’m thrilled to share the news that after 18 years of presenting the world’s best films at IFC Center, I will be moving to Netflix on April 10 to help lead their efforts to celebrate the next age of cinema, at the Paris in NYC and the Egyptian and the Bay in Los Angeles,” Vanco tweeted.
Vanco started at the NYC arthouse institution IFC Center in 2005. Before that he was at Freedonia Pictures, Cowboy Picture, Miramax and New Yorker Films.
Netflix stepped into the theatrical space in 2019 when it entered a lease agreement for the Paris Theatre in NYC. It acquired the historic Egyptian Theatre in 2020 and launched an extensive rennovation of the movie palace opened by Sid Grauman on Hollywood Boulevard in 1922. That’s set to reopen this year. In 2021, Netflix took over the lease of the Bay Theatre in Pacific Palisades, which was shuttered during Covid, and reopened by the streamer in November of that year. It uses the theaters to showcase its own fare and host special events as well as screen classic film programs and retrospectives.
David Schwartz will be staying on through April and overseeing Netflix Venice Film Festival Presents: Next Generation series announced earlier this week. Schwartz had joined Netflix in 2019 from Museum of the Moving Image as manager of theatrical programming and to oversee the Paris Theatre.