American film producer Christine Vachon was BOTD in 1962. Born in New York City, she studied at Brown University where she befriended director Todd Haynes. In 1987, she co-produced Haynes’ short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, a graphic acount of Carpenter’s struggles with bulimia, using Barbie dolls as actors. The film was withdrawn from public circulation after Richard Carpenter objected to the unauthorised use of his music, but has subsequently become a classic of underground cinema. Vachon produced Haynes’ 1991 debut feature film Poison, a triptych of queer-themed stories inspired by the writings of Jean Genet. The winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, the film vaulted Vachon and Haynes to the centre of the emerging New Queer Cinema movement. Vachon has since produced all Haynes’ films, including Safe, Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven, I’m Not There and Carol. She has also supported the directorial careers of LGBTQ filmmakers including Mary Harron, Todd Solondz, John Cameron Mitchell, Larry Clark, Kimberly Peirce and Tom Kalin. In 2023, she earned her first Oscar nomination as the producer of Celine Song’s debut film Past Lives. Vachon lives in New York with her partner Marlene McCarty, with whom she has a daughter.