Ani Schroeter Produces "Big Personality Movies"

She produced 'This Closeness' and the upcoming 'Bunnylovr' and 'Big Break.' We discuss what unites all of them and how she works with different filmmakers.

After graduating from college, Ani Schroeter was working as the assistant to the editor-in-chief of The History Channel and Lifetime when some friends from school asked her to come down to North Carolina and AD a feature they were making called Giants Being Lonely. “I was like, ‘Screw it, I'm going to leave my job and go do this,’” Schroeter recalls. In North Carolina, she got the bug. “It was such an amazing experience. It was like fourteen to sixteen hour days. And it felt like summer camp. I was like, ‘I never want to do anything else with my life.’"

Then Schroeter returned to New York, and reality sunk in. “I was like, ‘I need a real job actually. It's not sustainable.’" She worked at IFP (now, Gotham) for a few months, and then got a job working for Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, a pair of seasoned producers who had started their own company. “That was an amazing experience in terms of training,” Schroeter says. “There were four of us at the company, and they were operating as though it was a huge studio. So we had like seventy movies in development. It was really intense. But I learned a lot.”

Working for Milchin and Lambert gave Schroeter the confidence to go solo as a freelance producer in the fall of 2019. The first short film she produced, Wiggle Room, got into Sundance and was acquired by Searchlight. “It was the most successful you can be as a short film, but then COVID hit and I went on unemployment like everybody else,” Schroeter says. Towards the end of that period, as things got up and running again, Schroeter started picking up jobs, including as the lead producer on Kit Zauhar’s This Closeness; as an associate producer on Between the Temples; as a lead producer, with Roger Mancusi, on Katarina Zhu's Bunnylovr; and as a lead producer, with Graham Mason and Sarah Wilson, on Simple Town’s Big Break. This past week, just before leaving New York for the Sundance premiere of Bunnylovr, we chatted about her work on those films, her producing style, the kinds of projects she’s interested in, and making the most of small budgets.

Still from Bunnylovr, which just premiered at Sundance.

You went to college for acting. When you decided you wanted to be behind the camera rather than in front of it, was that with the thought that you wanted to produce or direct?

I really do love the idea of directing, and I did direct a short film called Yield. But one of the biggest things I love about filmmaking is putting all the pieces together.

How does that work?

I'm very much a creative producer. I receive a first draft of a script that the writer or writer-director is working on. I love that aspect of it. Having deep conversations about the script and how it develops over time. I'm not the kind of producer who's like, "This doesn't make sense. I think they would say something different here." I like to pose everything as questions. "Do you think this character would really make this decision? Based on the last twenty pages, I feel like they're a lot shyer," or something like that. I love that process.

And then I love brainstorming actor ideas. I love actors. I recognize names and faces of actors more than I do my own family. [Laughs.]

And over the years, I’ve really learned more about the intricacies of financing. I’ve been meeting people who are interested in being involved in movies financially. And then pitching your heart out on movies you love and want to make has been really interesting.

And then hiring all your friends who are talented and will jive well with the directors. I always say, "Making movies is really hard, so let's make it fun too."

Still from This Closeness.

How has your role looked different with different directors and different writers?

I think it really depends. On Bunnylovr, Roger [Mancusi] knows so many people in the industry. He was such an important person in financially putting the film together. But I have a lot of physical producing experience, getting things from A to B and making sure that HODs have everything they need and that they're supported. So we were a very good match in that way.

On the film I'm doing right now, I've worked with the line producer, Gia Rigoli, twice, and she has such a better brain in terms of the budget and deals we can get and moving things around within a budget. And I'm also working with another producer on the project, Devon Young, who comes from more of a studio background and is able to talk to agents in a different way. It's a lot of massaging, making sure people feel taken care of, locking those deals. So I think every project is different and when you build a team it's figuring out what everyone's strengths are and how you can supplement them in a way that makes the process easy. Does that answer your question?

Sort of. I think what I'm really asking is about the creative side: How does the collaborative process look different on Bunnylovr versus the Simple Town movie versus This Closeness?

It really varies on the kinds of filmmakers that they are. All four of the movies I've been lead producer on were first time filmmakers -- except for Kit [Zauhar] actually. Some directors are a lot more hands off and some are more particular. With both Kit and Kat [Zhu], they're starring in the films, so in both those situations I was behind the monitor the entire time. After every take it was like, "Ani, did we get that?" And I was giving my notes.

With Simple Town it was really interesting because there are five of them, and they're all negotiating together whether they got it or they didn't get it. In that case, I was more hands off creatively and more giving them the resources to get their job done. Last night, we watched the first thirty minutes of the movie that Caro [Yost] and Sam [Lanier] cut, and I think it comes back to the creative producing side where I'm giving notes. But directly on set, it's just being the support system.

And then with this next movie, it's a couple. They co-wrote it, they're co-directing, and I have no idea what it's going to be like on set. But I think our process of getting the movie up and running has been very collaborative. Although when it's a couple working together, when they come to me, they've already been talking about the movie for six hours. So it's very different than when you're working with one director and it's you and them the entire time.

Still from Between the Temples.

On set, how much are you looking at the monitor and being a resource to the director and how much are you making sure that the ship is running smoothly in all the other different ways that it needs to?

On my last two films, I've been by the monitor most of the time. I think that's testament to the production team that I've built for each of those projects. [Your friend] Mackenzie Jamieson is an amazing example. On the Simple Town movie, I don't think I could've been behind the monitor if she, Pete McClellan, and Kate Lopez were not running the film like it's the military. I'm there to put out fires if they come up. But I think a lot of the work great producers have done is before the movie and after the movie. And while you're on set, it's making sure everything is running as smoothly as possible.

Does that mean proactively checking on stuff or reacting as it’s happening?

I think it's a bit of both. Things come up on set that you can't control. Without giving too much away, on Bunnylovr, we lost a couple hours because of a bunny incident. And what could we do about that? It was out of our hands. So it's thinking about how we shrink the amount of shots that we need to get for the rest of the day.

You're doing a bunch of these projects at the same time. I'm curious about how you tend to come onto different projects and then how you juggle them?

Well, I don't sleep. [Laughs.] A lot of it is filmmakers I've worked with before that have been developing a project and then it's done and they share it with me. A lot of it is word of mouth. I have some projects that my cousin, Myriam Schroeter, has sent me the script and I've loved it, and we've started to develop a slate together. Some are articles that I've loved and thought would be perfect for a given writer. And then I'll take meetings with people I cold reach out to or people who are friends that are writers. It depends on the project. This year, I'm liking the idea of developing something off spec. So, articles or books or general story ideas. And then working with a writer to develop it. Because I think it naturally takes more time. So getting things going that could be made in 2026 or 2027 is something that's exciting.

Do you think there's a through line between the different filmmakers and projects you've worked with/on and want to work with/on?

Well, what I like to call the movies that I produce are big personality movies. Movies that take the classic narratives we've all seen and really spin them on their head. I love characters we hate but can't stop watching, who maybe remind us of ourselves in ways we don't want to admit to ourselves. And projects that are just bizarre and loud. No shade on coming of age movies, but I'm kind of over them unless you're doing something really different. I love a rom-com, but how do we make it kooky and wild in a way that makes us think of a different kind of film? So, genre-bending movies about people who are not likable.

A lot of the projects you've done have been small indie budgets. When you're working on small budgets, are there certain things you prioritize and certain things you feel more comfortable sacrificing?

I think part of it is paying everyone MFN ("most favored nations"). I think that's important and helps to put most of the money on the screen. But it's a dance. Directors are going to have different wants and needs. And I think it's about being flexible. We live in New York City. We're scrappy. You figure out ways to get a bus or whatever it may be. Ask around! I'm shameless in that. I'm down to ask anybody anything. The worst that can happen is someone says no. But at least you tried.

How is the financing landscape looking right now for indie film?

I had a conversation with somebody at a production/distribution company recently, and I think that all of these big ass companies need to put their millions of dollars into making like five films under a million dollars – or $500K even. I think we are so hungry for new filmmakers and storytellers. I'm over the Avengers series. I'm over these big budget movies. Look at Sundance in the '90s and all the filmmakers who came out of that. I think we're hungry for a new generation of people and we're not being given the resources to do that. Cannes from this past year was a testament to that. We had four American films that were made for under $500K. And I hope that's what continues to happen over the next couple years. I hope people are given a chance to make movies at small budgets that do well.

You're about to go to Sundance for Bunnylovr. How are you approaching that?

It's still work. We're celebrating, but we are trying to get the movie sold. I'm still trying to take as many meetings with people as possible. There's a lot of different projects that I'm working on that are at different phases. Some are casting, so I'm trying to meet with agents and managers. Some movies need financing, so it’s meeting financiers at the festival. But also I'm trying to enjoy myself. A friend said this: It feels like movie prom. So in that way, you're seeing all these people you've been on emails with or that you know by face and it's a hilarious, wild time. I have a lot of meetings, but I'm also trying to celebrate and be there for Katarina, who I'm very proud of. She's handled this whole process with such grace.

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