Food Heiress Gillian Hormel Launches Partners In Kind, With $50M Equity Fund To Jumpstart Projects With Social Impact; Mary Aloe To Head Film Production

EXCLUSIVE: Gillian Hormel, the American heiress to the Hormel Foods brand, has launched Partners in Kind, with author Shelly Tygielski, the founder of Pandemic of Love. Mary Aloe has been named Head of Feature Films. The intention is to use a $50 million equity fund to develop and invest in film and television projects over the next three years aimed at inspiring tangible acts of kindness and compassion.

Partners in Kind will produce, and finance projects focused on a variety of topics including women’s rights, the amplification of underserved voices, climate change and diversity. The team is actively seeking packaged films to finance, produce, executive produce and specialize in equity, mezzanine, and gap financing. Dorothy Toran will serve as the new company’s president.

Aloe is an industry veteran and independent filmmaker who has produced/financed forty-four films, and running several different film funds.

Of Partners in Kind, Aloe says, “I feel that this fund is more important than ever with what is happening to our world right now and I am grateful to use the medium of film to strengthen our global impact. While Gillian and have obviously enjoyed fiscal success together, we share an alignment in the desire to inspire social awareness and catalyze change through films.”

Hormel and Aloe have been producing together since 2019 with credits that include the Halle Berry-directed Bruised, the Sean Penn-directed Flag Day, Rumours with Cate Blanchett, and the Jamie Foxx-Robert De Niro-starrer Tin Soldier.

Hormel called Aloe “the most amazing film partner over the last few years. With the number of films, we have worked on together, I have had a first-hand look at her impressive instinct to identify successful projects. Mary’s expertise in film financing and production along with her strong intuition and altruistic nature made for an evident choice to have her lead Partners in Kind’s feature film division,” says Hormel.”

Aloe will maintain her production company in Beverly Hills, Aloe Entertainment, while she will be heading the Feature Film Division at Partners in Kind to produce/executive produce and finance independent films. In addition to projects under the PIK banner, Aloe and Hormel will continue to produce and finance under their current respective banners, Aloe Entertainment and Ludascripts.

Partners in Kind will work with productions to create Impact Campaigns to go along with everything they do. Creating tangible Impact that the viewers can participate in is a key tenet of the fund.

The venture is represented by Marc Chamlin at Loeb and Loeb.