#94: Anna Godas, CEO of Dogwoof

Best Girl Grip

My guest this week is Anna Godas, the CEO of documentary distribution company Dogwoof, who have released films such as The Alpinist, The Act of Killing, Blackfish, Cameraperson, Citizenfour, Free Solo, Honeyland, Minding the Gap, OJ:Made in America, RBG and many many more. Quite simply, if Dogwoof are putting a doc into cinemas, you’re probably in for a treat.

Their latest film is Becoming Cousteau, directed by Liz Garbus which is released this Friday and provides an inside look at the life of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and the experiences that made him the man who inspired generations to protect the Earth.

Anna has steered the company from a small UK indie film distributor to a leading global brand in the field of documentary and was directly responsible for the creation of Dogwoof's international sales arm, as well as the creation of Dogwoof's fund T-Dog Productions. Anna is now focusing on growing Dogwoof's production and development side, focusing on feature docs, doc series, remake rights, podcast and shorter content. Her mission is to create a fully integrated true stories mini-studio.

We talk about the origin story of Dogwoof, as well as how her role as evolved over the years and since becoming a mother. We discuss how she strives to create an open, transparent and healthy working culture, how the documentary landscape is changing and why, and why you can’t really plan for the future.

It was a joy to speak to Anna and hope you enjoy this insight into one of the most prolific distributors out there.

This is episode 94 of Best Girl Grip.