Steve Golin

Steven Aaron Golin (March 6, 1955 – April 21, 2019) was an American film and television producer. He was the founder and CEO of Anonymous Content LLP, a multimedia development, production and talent management company and co-founder and CEO of Propaganda Films. Golin graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 1976 and attended the AFI Conservatory. He won Best Picture at the 2016 Academy Awards for Spotlight.

Propaganda Films

Golin and partner Joni Sighvatsson launched Propaganda Films, a talent management, advertising, and video production company, in 1986. They built Propaganda into the largest music video and commercial production company in the world, winning more MTV Video Awards and Cannes Palme d'Or Awards than any other company and quickly became a home for the most sought-after young music video and commercial directors. One of its first discoveries was David Fincher, then an unknown video director. Not long afterward, a young filmmaker showed up with a reel containing a Donny Osmond video and a spec Coke commercial. Golin watched the clips and told Michael Bay, "Nice to meet you. You're hired." After seeing a couple of skateboard videos he liked, Golin brought Spike Jonze into the fold. Other discoveries included Antoine Fuqua, Gore Verbinski, and Alex Proyas. Golin and Sighvatsson sold the company to PolyGram, but when PolyGram was sold to Seagram in 1998, Golin lost control of the company and exited in 1999.

Anonymous Content

Golin's next company, Anonymous Content, located in Culver City, California, was launched in early 2000. Golin has guided the company's commercial division to become one of the top commercial production entities in the industry, producing spots and campaigns for Audi, Citibank, Coca-Cola, Ford, Intel, Nike, Pepsi, United Airlines, and others. Its music video division, which earned Best New Artist Clip (Hard Rock category) at the 2000 Billboard Music Video Awards for A Perfect Circle's "Judith" (2000),directed by David Fincher, has also produced projects for Cypress Hill, Filter, Smashmouth, Third Eye Blind, and The Wallflowers, among other artists. Under Golin's leadership, the company's management division has grown to represent more than 50 writers, directors, and actors. Fincher also worked with the company to produce "The Hire", a series of adverts for BMW, which were only available online.

Golin has also produced a number of feature films and television shows, some of which were produced with Anonymous Content and others through Propaganda Films. These include David Fincher's The Game (1997),Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich (1999), Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel (2006), and Gavin Hood's Rendition (2007), Nic Pizzolatto's True Detective (2014), Sam Esmail's Mr. Robot (2015) and Tom McCarthy's Spotlight (2015).

Golin received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture for producing Babel, The Revenant, and Spotlight, the latter of which he won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Golin had two children, Ari and Anna.He initially was a cancer survivor. He was Jewish. Golin died of Ewing's sarcoma on April 21, 2019 at the age of 64.