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Robert Shaye
Hailed as "the quintessential independent," Shaye has masterminded the transformation of a modest homegrown "niche pic" operation into a leading film production and distribution studio over the course of the last 25 years. As the founder, president and chief executive officer of New Line Cinema, Shaye evolved from distributing 16mm foreign and "cult" films on the college and midnight circuit to having 25 projects scheduled for production between 1996 and 1998 at a cost of $520 million. New Line also successfully diversified into various fields including home video and TV programming distribution and launched its own art-film division. Not bad for a company that started out in a Greenwich Village apartment.