The Evolving Ethics of the Entertainment Industry

Tava Maloy Sofsky serves as director and film commissioner for the Cherokee Nation Film Office (CNFO). Sofsky left her post as director of the Oklahoma Film + Music Office in 2022 to join CNFO, which is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. During her tenure serving the state for more than eight years, Sofsky oversaw Oklahoma’s $30 million annual film incentive program and helped expand the state’s top-rate talent, crew base and infrastructure to include four Oklahoma Certified Sound Stages and more than 25 Film Friendly Certified Communities statewide. Under her leadership, OF+MO was named an Oklahoma Film ICON by deadCenter Film, and Sofsky’s team was honored to receive the award for Outstanding Film Commission at the 2022 Location Managers Guild International Awards. Sofsky brings more than 23 years of industry-leading experience to her new role supporting the mission and strategic growth of CNFO and oversees the film incentive and educational and mentor programs, among other initiatives in the tribal film office. Sofsky, a citizen of Cherokee Nation and an Oklahoma native, began her film career in Los Angeles after earning a bachelor’s degree in film and media studies from the University of Oklahoma. She has worked on major motion pictures, independent features, and several national commercials, establishing an impressive network of filmmakers and talent, including Doug Claybourne, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Anthony Hopkins, John Travolta, Jennifer Lopez and many studio executives such as Jay Roewe (HBO), Mary Ann Hughes (Disney) and Michael Walbrecht (Warner Bros.).

CNFO is a branch of the umbrella organization Cherokee Film, led by Senior Director Jennifer Loren. Both Sofsky and Loren serve on the board of the Oklahoma Motion Picture Alliance.

Cherokee.Film – The mission of the Cherokee Nation Film Office is to increase the presence of Native Americans in every level of the film and television industries, while creating economic opportunities and jobs in the Cherokee Nation – a 14-county reservation area in northeast Oklahoma. CNFO also created and maintains unique, all-inclusive talent, crew and consulting online directories featuring Native American actors, extras, voice actors, crew, cultural experts, and other industry resources.

Jennifer Loren (Cherokee Nation) is an award-winning tn-host, filmmaker and senior director of Cherokee Film. In this role she sets strategy and oversees Cherokee Film Productions, Cherokee Film Studios, Cherokee Film Commission and the Cherokee Film Institute.

Jennifer passionately leads a staff of nearly 30 content creators and other staff, whose mission is to protect and share the authentic Cherokee experience, culture and history, through film, tv and the metaverse and to increase the presence of Native Americans in every level of the film and tv industries.

With a background in broadcast television and investigative journalism, Jennifer began working for her tribe in 2014. She co-created, produces and hosts the Emmy-award winning docuseries “Osiyo, Voices of the Cherokee People,” which airs on PBS stations and is now in its 8th season.

In 2019, Jennifer helped the Cherokee Nation create and roll out the first certified Native American film commission to open in the United States, the Cherokee Nation Film Office (CNFO). Under her leadership CNFO created and maintains unique, online talent, crew and consulting directories featuring Native American actors, extras, voice actors, crew, cultural experts and other industry resources.

In 2020, Jennifer oversaw the buildout of a state-of-the-art 27-thousand square foot virtual production soundstage in the Cherokee Nation, which is used to create Cherokee and other Native content a well as provide much-needed infrastructure for the growing Oklahoma film industry. With the stage’s XR technology, the Cherokee Nation became the first tribe to create Native content in the metaverse.

In early 2022, under Jennifer’s direction, the CNFO accomplished yet another groundbreaking feat by offering the first-ever tribal film incentive program which is a $1 million annual cash rebate program for hiring Native Americans and filming in the Cherokee Nation reservation.

Also in 2022, Jennifer began expanding original content for Cherokee Nation, producing feature-length documentaries and introducing a film and tv development branch to bring more Cherokee stories to mainstream media.

In 2022, Jennifer was named the Oklahoma Film ICON award by the state’s largest film festival deadCenter Film. She has also been named Woman of the Year by Tulsa YWCA and the Tulsa Mayor's Office; Woman of the Year by The Journal Record; as well as a Great Plains Distinguished Lecturer by Tulsa Press Club. In the past ten years, she has earned 17 Heartland Regional Emmy Awards for her work in journalism and documentary film. She is a wife and mother to four young girls. She serves on many local and regional Boards and commissions including but not limited to the Booker T Washington High School Foundation for Excellence and is currently the Chairwoman of the Oklahoma Motion Picture Alliance.