HBO Films President Colin Callender Exits

If I had to answer the question, "Which person has been thanked most often at the Emmy Awards in the past decade," I would go with Colin Callender. That name may not mean anything to you, but Callender is the guy behind HBO Films. Or he was. Callender announced on Tuesday that he's leaving the channel to pursue other interests, presumably in film production. Variety reports that after a 21-year marriage, Callender's departure was not a huge surprise, given the executive shake-up at HBO last year. Still, it's a towering loss for a network that charted unprecedented growth under his leadership. Perhaps some of these titles mean something to you, even if Colin Callender's name does not: Angels in America, Empire Falls, Miss Evers Boys, The Gathering Storm, Recount, and John Adams. During his tenure, HBO racked up 84 Emmys and 26 Golden Globes, including 16 Emmys last month...just for HBO's longform programming.Then there's his brief stint with Picturehouse, one of the many Time-Warner-AOL stepchildren that was abandoned too quickly. Callender split time between HBO Films and Picturehouse, and the latter managed a bunch of Oscar nominations in just three years, though, winning Best Actress with Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose, while finding great critical acclaim for Pan's Labyrinth, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Mongol, and others. So, yeah, this guy knows what he's doing. The question is, will HBO know what it's doing without him?