Pitch your project or idea over lunch or Skype with a top Hollywood producer, Marisa Polvino, CEO of Straight Up Films.
With a career spanning over two decades, Marisa Polvino is a seasoned producer with a skill for identifying, packaging, and producing quality, star-driven entertainment across all genres and budget levels. Presently, Marisa is the Co-CEO of successful entertainment company STRAIGHT UP FILMS.
Following stints at Comedy Central and GEN ART, Marisa invested time with GE Capital, where she became proficient in corporate financing and strategic thinking. Marisa began securing multi-million dollar financing deals for independent films and produced such films as Federal Hill, (Trimark), Outside Providence (Miramax), starring Alec Baldwin, American Buffalo (Samuel Goldwyn Co.) starring Dustin Hoffman.
In early 2003, Marisa met Roger Marino (founder of EMC), who, impressed with her vision, asked her to consult for him. She turned that into a seven-figure investment and a new company REVERE PRODS, and went on to make I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead (Paramount), starring Clive Owen, The Door In The Floor (Focus), starring Jeff Bridges, and The Education of Charlie Banks starring Jesse Eisenberg.
In 2008, Marisa co-found STRAIGHT UP FILMS and has been integral in growing the company and securing its first-rate film slate including Transcendence (Warner Bros), starring Johnny Depp, SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock (Magnolia Pictures) and Jane Got a Gun (TWC) with Natalie Portman. Presently, Marisa oversees a top flight feature slate which includes Merrick directed by Kornel Mundruczo, How to Set a Fire and Why, directed by award winning director/actress Lisa Edelstein, Dissonance, a YA love story set in the multiverse directed to Catherine Hardwicke and Viktor Frankl’s iconic memoir Man’s Search for Meaning.
Recognizing the profound effect cinema can have on culture, Marisa launched the sub-division STRAIGHT UP IMPACT with the mission of producing initiative based content that can shift perspectives and create tangible change through storytelling. The first series produced under the banner was the Power-On Series which can be seen on YouTube. Upcoming series are Meaning in Madness which explores the record-high suicide rates in our nation and Gun Nation, Under Violence which deconstructs the complicated issues that contribute to gun violence in our country. Marisa currently lives in Santa Monica, CA and is trying to stay healthy and sane while in quarantine with her two children and mother.