Academy Award-nominated producer Michael London (Sideways, Milk, The Visitor, The Family Stone, The Illusionist) is the principal and founder of Groundswell Productions, an independent production and financing company formed in 2006 with a mission to create a thriving home for filmmakers with singular voices that reach broad audiences.

The company’s slate mixes films from established directors and emerging talent alongside comedies and genre films with an original sensibility.

Since its inception three years ago, Groundswell has produced several recent releases: Gus Van Sant’s Milk starring Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin and James Franco, which Focus Features released; Appaloosa, directed by Ed Harris, who also stars opposite Renee Zellweger and Viggo Mortensen, which Warner Bros. released; Smart People, directed by Noam Murro and starring Dennis Quaid, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page and Sarah Jessica Parker, which Miramax released; and The Visitor, a co-production with Participant Media from writer-director Tom McCarthy starring Richard Jenkins, which was distributed by Overture Films.

Groundswell has also completed production on four films: Andrew Jarecki’s All Good Things starring Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, and Frank Langella, to be released by The Weinstein Company; Todd Louiso’s The Marc Pease Experience starring Jason Schwartzman, Ben Stiller and Anna Kendrick, co-financed by Paramount Vantage; Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant starring Matt Damon, co-financed by Participant Media and Warner Bros., to be released by Warner Bros. in September 2009; and Rawson Marshall Thurber’s The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, based on the Michael Chabon novel, starring Sienna Miller, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jon Foster, to be released by Peace Arch on March 27, 2009.

Prior to founding Groundswell, London produced the Alexander Payne film Sideways, which won a Golden Globe for Best Picture (comedy or musical), an Independent Spirit Award, and a Best Picture nominee at the 2005 Academy Awards, where it won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

In 2005, London produced The Family Stone, written and directed by Thomas Bezucha, and starring Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Dermot Mulroney, Luke Wilson, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams and Craig T. Nelson. London also produced Neil Burger’s The Illusionist, a period romantic thriller set in Vienna that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 and was released in August 2006. The film starred Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and Jessica Biel and it was produced with David Levien, Brian Koppelman, Cathy Schulman and Bob Yari, who also financed the picture. 

Earlier in 2006, London teamed up again with Alexander Payne to produce King of California, which was written and directed by Mike Cahill and starred Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood.

In 2003 London produced House of Sand and Fog starring Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley for Dreamworks and Thirteen starring Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood. Both received Academy Award nominations and 2004 Independent Spirit awards.  Thirteen also won Best Director honors at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival where Fox Searchlight acquired worldwide distribution rights to the independently-financed production.

Previously, London spent five years as a production executive at Fox, which he departed as executive vice president of production.  Films under his supervision included Alien 3, Die Hard 2, Sleeping with the Enemy, Hoffa, and the Sandlot. He started his career as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times after receiving his undergraduate degree from Stanford University.