Tammie Rosen, the beloved champion of the independent community who led communications at Sundance and Tribeca, died of cancer on Wednesday morning. She was 49.
“Tammie was a remarkable leader whose integrity, compassion, and unwavering commitment to our organization will have a lasting impact,” Ebs Burnough, Sundance Institute board chair, said in a statement. “Under her stewardship, Sundance Institute’s story was told with heart and authenticity because, quite simply, she embodied the joy and power of our mission.”
Rosen announced her diagnosis last May on Instagram, the social forum where over the years she chronicled many of her pursuits, including travels across Asia and the United States, and Bruce Springsteen concerts.
To many who knew her and worked with her, the New Jersey-born Rosen was a rock star: greeting people with a twinkle in her eye and calmly overseeing strategy at major international festivals with a sense of calm that instilled confidence in colleagues and journalists alike.
The indefatigable executive joined Sundance as chief communications officer in 2020 as the world was entering hibernation. During her tenure she displayed professionalism and empathy, fielding a barrage of questions about contingency plans as the festival moved to a virtual edition and launched the world-class viewing portal.
More recently, she worked with the festival throughout the relocation process that will see Sundance move to Boulder, Colorado, in January 2027 after the upcoming final edition in Park City, Utah.
She served as EVP of communications and programming at Tribeca from 2007-19, helping co-founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal expand that institution, formalising a relationship that had begun in 2004 while she worked at Rubenstein PR.
De Niro and Rosenthal said: “Tammie started working with us in 2004, just eight days before the third edition of Tribeca as the co-lead on our PR account with Rubenstein. Three years later in 2007 she joined us full time – and for the next 16 years we watched this extraordinary dynamic woman help us build Tribeca.”
Full Sundance and Tribeca statements:
”All of us at Sundance Institute are profoundly saddened by the passing of Tammie Rosen, Chief Communications Officer, following a courageous battle with cancer.
“Tammie was a remarkable leader whose integrity, compassion, and unwavering commitment to our organization will have a lasting impact. Under her stewardship, Sundance Institute’s story was told with heart and authenticity because, quite simply, she embodied the joy and power of our mission.
“Tammie had an extraordinary ability to connect and inspire; she led with purpose and heart, always guided by an ethic of excellence, empathy, and genuine care for others. Her warmth, generosity, and laugh were infectious, and her keen intelligence and moral character inspired her colleagues not only at Sundance Institute but across the industry. She was one of a kind, and she will be deeply missed and forever remembered.
“Our hearts are with Tammie’s family and loved ones during this extraordinarily difficult time.”
Ebs Burnough, Sundance Institute board chair
”It is with profound sadness that Bob and I mourn the passing of Tammie Rosen, our EVP of Communications and Programming (2007-2019).
”Tammie started working with us in 2004, just eight days before the third edition of Tribeca as the co-lead on our PR account with Rubenstein. Three years later in 2007 she joined us full time — and for the next 16 years we watched this extraordinary dynamic woman help us build Tribeca. Tammie’s passion, commitment, selflessness, hard work, love of our community, the arts, filmmakers, and the stories they tell was infectious.
”She helped build creative strategies that expanded Tribeca outside our backyard to Rome, Beijing, and Doha and into areas of innovation, music, and sports. We will forever be in awe of her tireless dedication, her impeccable ethics, her remarkable leadership, her humor, her love of Bruce Springsteen, her trademark red lipstick, and most of all her friendship. She was singularly just remarkable. We send our heartfelt sympathy to her mom Sheryle, sister Stefani, brother Brian, and the rest of her family and friends.”
Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal
No comments yet