The Sundance Kid’s Hot Streak

For Shivani Rawat, filmmaking is nourishment. That might sound like a saccharine Hollywood-ism, something a wet-behind-the-ears financier would spout, but she means it literally. “We have a rule: Feed people all the time,” says the founder and chief executive officer of ShivHans Pictures, a three-year-old bicoastal production and finance company. “People always say they gain weight on my sets. I say, ‘It’s good for you. Eat.’ ”

Keeping gaffers and second-unit directors fed typically ranks low on the job description of Hollywood “it” producer. At 31, Rawat has a serious claim to the title, riding an improbable early-career hot streak and quickly cementing the “golden touch” status that others in her field spend decades chasing. Her first feature, Danny Collins (2015), a drama about an aging rocker, earned critical plaudits and a Golden Globe nomination for Al Pacino; her follow-up, Trumbo (also 2015), a biopic about Dalton Trumbo, the Spartacus screenwriter blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, resulted in an Oscar nod for star Bryan Cranston and a Golden Globe nomination for co-star Helen Mirren. Most recently, Captain Fantastic, the story of a survivalist raising his children in the Pacific Northwest, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and later received a 10-minute standing ovation at Cannes. It also earned its star, Viggo Mortensen, a Golden Globe bid (he lost to Casey Affleck), positioning him for a busy awards season. ShivHans’s fourth feature, The Polka King, a dramatic comedy starring Jack Black, premieres at Sundance later this month.