Sarah Pillsbury

Minnesotan Sarah Pillsbury attended Yale University and studied film and African history in the late 1960s. She once took a break from her studies to live in Africa to learn about it first thand. After graduation, she moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s to continue her film studies at UCLA, work on student film projects and help produce documentaries. One of the student projects she worked on became the feature film Eraserhead (1977) directed by AFI student 'David Lynch'. She co-produced a short film, Board and Care (1980) that delivered Pillsbury an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. In 1981, she teamed up with Midge Sanford to form Sanford/Pillsbury Productions. They have produced many feature film projects including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), River's Edge (1986) and the HBO telefilm, And the Band Played On (1993) - the latter two projects earning the team an Independent Spirit Award and an Emmy. She is the mother of a daughter and a son.