Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Carolina Groppa

ANGLE ON PRODUCERS spotlights producers from all corners of the entertainment industry to demystify the age old question: "What exactly does a producer do?". Join Emmy nominated producer Carolina Groppa as she gives you an honest glimpse into what it's like to walk in our shoes.

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    Personal Update + Listener Questions Answered

    In this solo episode, I get candid. I open up about losing my father in January, what grief looks like when you can't afford to stop moving, and the complicated truth about showing up anyway — to the meeting, to the festival, to the mic. I also dig into eight listener questions from the year-end survey, covering: how I select guests, whether I'm still producing, how independent producers can find financing outside traditional models, tips for batching scenes on a micro-budget shoot, how to pitch yourself for freelance producing opportunities, where to actually network, how to work festivals like Sundance and SXSW, and how to define and achieve your goals in a season of uncertainty. Raw, practical, and very real... Thanks for doing this life thing with me!

    21 min

  2. 10 MAR

    How Pam Carbonero Built The Directors Community of Her Dreams

    Pam Carbonero is a seasoned Latina director, producer, writer, and first AD with 15-plus short films, a 12-episode mini-series, and a one-and-a-half hour vertical series under her belt. When she's not directing, she's working full-time as a first AD across features, commercials, music videos, you name it. And she is a proud anti-gatekeeper.  But the thing I really wanted to bring her on to talk about is what she built from scratch out of pure necessity: the LA Director's Lab. In 2021, she had an idea for a space where directors could simply practice their craft. She started small: six directors, eight actors, a friend's bar, iPhones, zero professional gear. That was all she needed. Today, LADL has grown into full two-day workshops with DPs, professional crews, screening days — and most recently, she executive produced five horror short films in three and a half weeks with her community of artists. Tune in as we discuss mental health, doing the reps, and what makes an exceptional 1st AD.

    48 min

  3. 19 FEB

    How Culture Impacts Craft with Marina Stabile, Producer of Sundance Winning Film "Josephine"

    Marina Stabile is a Brazilian-born, Swiss-raised producer and line producer with over 20 years of experience in film, documentaries, commercials, and digital content. She is also one of my favorite humans and I'm lucky I get to call her a friend. She grew up in São Paulo, moved to Geneva at 10, attended an international school with 118 nationalities, and knew she wanted to produce after watching the Irving Thalberg Award presented at 3 a.m. on an Oscar broadcast. She studied film and international relations at USC, produced documentaries for the United Nations in Geneva, and returned to the U.S. to earn her MFA in producing at AFI, where her thesis film The Response won a Student BAFTA. Marina's credits span indie and studio, including Miguel Arteta's Beatriz at Dinner starring Salma Hayek, the Sundance Grand Jury Prize–winning Clemency starring Alfre Woodard, Harrison Ford's The Call of the Wild (as VFX supervisor), Searchlight's Hold Your Breath starring Sarah Paulson, The People We Hate at the Wedding, and the pandemic-shot Untitled Horror Movie alongside fellow producer Bronwyn Cornelius. Most recently, she produced Josephine — written and directed by Beth de Araújo and starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan — which won both the U.S. Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival before being acquired by Sumerian Pictures in a competitive seven-figure deal. The film went on to screen in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. In this conversation, we explore how culture impacts your craft, define once and for all what line producers really do, why the best career moves sometimes look like steps backward, and whether Los Angeles is still a special place to make movies. Enjoy!! CG

    54 min

  4. 3 FEB

    Live from Sundance with "Bedford Park" Producer Gary Foster on How to be a Director's Offensive Lineman

    *Brought to you in partnership with GreenSlate* Bucket list moment unlocked! 🎬 Our first-ever live episode from Sundance is here. I sat down with producer Gary Foster to talk about the seven-year journey of bringing "Bedford Park" to the screen—a deeply personal Korean-American story that almost didn't get made. We tackle:  How Gary met director Stephanie Ahn 12 years ago when she was an assistant editor, and why he championed her debut feature for seven years The unconventional move that landed Hyundai as the first major investor with $1 million  That terrifying moment when he started production without full financing How changing a key character from Caucasian to Korean-American transformed the entire film What being a "career producer" actually means If you've ever wondered what it really takes to get an indie film made in today's landscape: the persistence, the creative partnerships, the calculated risks....this conversation is for you. xx CG AOP SUBSTACK 📫 Musings, Mixers, Workshops, and Exclusive Content https://angleonproducers.substack.com/   LISTEN TO THE SHOW Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6UBux9R... iTunes: https://apple.co/3FDyhmC JOIN THE AOP COMMUNITY 📸 Instagram: /   / carolinagroppa   |   / angleonproducers   📱 TikTok: /   / carolina_groppa   👩🏻‍💻 LinkedIn: / bit.ly/2BqHs8L   QUESTIONS ❔Answering your questions on Tuesdays in our newsletter! Submit here: anglonproducerspodcast@gmail.com

    39 min

  5. 20 JAN

    What Sundance & TIFF Programmers Are Really Looking For

    Ever wondered how festival programmers decide which films make the cut? For our first episode of 2026, I'm joined by two incredible women who've been shaping the landscape of independent cinema for over a decade. Ana Souza has been with Sundance Film Festival for 10 years, working alongside some of the most exciting independent filmmakers in the world. Diana Cadavid is currently Director of Industry Programs for the Latino Film Institute (LFI) in Los Angeles, and International Programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) She helped build IFF Panama's programming department from scratch. In this conversation, we break down: → The REAL selection process (spoiler: it's not about who you know) → How to map your premiere status strategy BEFORE you finish your film → The big film/small film balance that keeps festivals alive (and why you should stop resenting those studio movies) → Distribution in the post-COVID era: why the all-night bidding wars are gone, but deals are still happening → Why attending festivals WITHOUT a film might be the smartest career move you can make 🔗 READ MY SUBSTACK - The History of Film Festivals: [https://angleonproducers.substack.com/] 🎙️ LISTEN TO THE SHOW Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6UBux9R... iTunes: https://apple.co/3FDyhmC JOIN THE AOP COMMUNITY   / carolinagroppa   |   / angleonproducers   📱 TikTok: /   / carolina_groppa   👩🏻‍💻 LinkedIn: / bit.ly/2BqHs8L

    1h 8m

  6. 17/12/2025

    Paul Feig on Comedy, Cult Classics & The Housemaid

    When movie maestro and mixologist Paul Feig offers to teach you how to make a proper martini at 10a on a Wednesday, you say yes. It was thrilling to be tipsy before lunchtime. Almost as thrilling as it is to end 2025 with a conversation with the absolute icon that is director, producer, and comedy legend Paul Feig. Paul created the cult classic Freaks and Geeks, directed Bridesmaids, Spy, and A Simple Favor, and has helmed episodes of The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, and Arrested Development. He's a delight and the fun you feel watching is 100% the fun we had IRL. We dig into his journey from being the comedy outcast at USC Film School to becoming one of Hollywood's most successful directors. We talk about the brutal 'in-between' years that almost bankrupted him, why comedies get overlooked at awards shows, and his latest film "The Housemaid"—a dark thriller that marks the launch of his new production company, Pretty Dangerous Pictures. I quite liked the film and hope everyone will get their tushies out into a theater to experience it in the company of loved ones, friends, and strangers! Tune is as we discuss what makes a project "undeniable", the state of comedies in 2025, and why vanity projects ruin careers.   Join our Substack 📫 Musings, Mixers, Workshops, and Exclusive Content https://angleonproducers.substack.com/ 🎬 Follow Angle on Producers: Instagram: / https://instagram.com/carolinagroppa https://instagram.com/angleonproducers TikTok: / https://www.tiktok.com/@carolina_groppa 🎥 Website: www.angleonproducers.com

    1h 30m

  7. 09/12/2025

    Barbara Muschietti on 10 Years of Horror, TV Kicking Her Ass & What Actually Terrifies Her

    Barbara Muschietti is the phenomenal producer behind IT Chapter One & Two (combined $1.17B worldwide), The Flash, and the new Max series IT: Welcome to Derry. We actually met 5 years ago during my early podcast grind when I cold-emailed Barbara inviting her on the show. She said yes! She invited me to the Warner Brothers lot, to her office, and generously gave me almost 3 hours of her time. It was a real turning point for me and the show. The world, and certainly Hollywood, has changed tremendously since then. Full disclosure: we recorded this mere days before the audacious news that Netflix won the bid to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery. Five years later, we're back. Barbara opens up about "pushing a very, very heavy boulder" aka the reality of making movies even as an established producer with billions in box office success. She talks about The Flash making $300 million worldwide and still being considered a disappointment. She gets raw about what she learned producing nine hours of IT: Welcome to Derry with child actors during the strikes. We also dig into the LA production crisis, why she still takes a photo of the Warner lot water tower every single morning, and she's terrified we might lose it. Enjoy xx cg   AOP SUBSTACK 📫 Musings, Mixers, Workshops, and Exclusive Content https://angleonproducers.substack.com/ LISTEN TO THE SHOW Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6UBux9RgxeW1MiQDXSMrnr iTunes: https://apple.co/3FDyhmC JOIN THE AOP COMMUNITY 📸 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/carolinagroppa https://instagram.com/angleonproducers 📱 TikTok: / https://www.tiktok.com/@carolina_groppa ❔Answering your questions on Tuesdays in our newsletter! Submit here: anglonproducerspodcast@gmail.com

    1h 2m

  8. 02/12/2025

    Civil Co-Founder Alan Morales the Intersection of Coffee & Production in LA

    This week, I sit down with Alan Morales, co-founder of Civil Coffee, to explore the unexpected intersection of specialty coffee and film production in Los Angeles. Given LA's production crisis, I wanted to hear from someone on the ground—a small business owner in Highland Park who sees tons of filming and has thoughts on what producers and the city need to understand. Alan shares the espresso shot that changed his life, why he dropped out of electrical engineering one course away from graduating, and how Civil Coffee grew from mobile carts to three LA locations with their own roasting program focused exclusively on Mexican beans. We dig into the value chain from coffee farms to your cup, why productions understand craft services better than wedding clients, what it's like to visit Mexico for the first time as an adult after obtaining citizenship, and how LA's production crisis looks from street level. Alan's perspective on fair location fees, the human connection that makes or breaks production relationships, and what keeps him optimistic despite the current political climate offers valuable insights for anyone building something that requires invisible work to make magic happen.  Tune in! xx  🔗 CONNECT WITH ALAN & CIVIL COFFEE: Civil Coffee Instagram:   / civilcoffee   Civil Coffee Website: https://www.civilcoffee.com Locations: Highland Park, Studio City, DTLA 📱 CONNECT WITH ANGLE ON PRODUCERS: Subscribe to Angle on Producers: Substack: https://angleonproducers.substack.com/ Instagram:   / carolinagroppa     / angleonproducers   Website: https://www.angleonproducers.com 🎙️ ABOUT ANGLE ON PRODUCERS: Angle on Producers is a podcast hosted by Emmy-nominated producer Carolina Groppa pulls back the curtain on the producers and magic makers of Hollywood. With 150+ episodes, we explore what it really takes to be a producer, the invisible work behind finished films, and how to build a sustainable career in entertainment.

    49 min
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About

ANGLE ON PRODUCERS spotlights producers from all corners of the entertainment industry to demystify the age old question: "What exactly does a producer do?". Join Emmy nominated producer Carolina Groppa as she gives you an honest glimpse into what it's like to walk in our shoes.

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