Photo: Bingham Ray at the 2010 Woodstock Film Festival.

The San Francisco Film Society announced today that Bingham Ray passed away at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Before accepting the position of Executive Director in San Francisco in November, 2011, Ray was instrumental in launching the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center as a first run programming consultant at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Ray’s decades-long career included such notable achievements as serving as president of United Artists and co-founding indie film production and distribution company October Films. To read the San Francisco Film Society’s full announcement, please click here.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center mourns the loss of one of independent cinema’s great leaders. Our deepest condolences go out to Ray’s family.