FilmNation founder and CEO Glen Basner received the Game Changer Award at the Zurich Summit, where he discussed his career and the principles behind his success in international film sales and financing. In conversation with director Edward Berger, Basner stressed the importance of listening to filmmakers, treating films as works of art and building honest, long-term relationships with international distributors.

Basner moved from selling garments in his father’s business into film through work with Edward Burns and New York’s Good Machine, where he learned from figures including Ted Hope, James Schamus and David Linde. He founded FilmNation in 2008, initially as a sales company, and it has since expanded into financing, production and television, with credits including The Big Sick, Promising Young Woman, Anora, Conclave and Maria; Berger and Basner also worked together on Conclave, which grossed $100 million globally.