The Black List was started as an annual newsletter by Harvard graduate Franklin Leonard in 2005. Last October, Sijamic transformed it into a website (blcklst.com) with regular updates - and in the process has made it a must-bookmark page for Hollywood. It is scoured by agents and referenced freely in Hollywood press stalwarts like Variety and Deadline.
Leonard says Sijamic gets the credit for making the newsletter into the influential force it is today.
“I’ve worked in Hollywood for nine years, so it’s my area of expertise,’’ says Leonard, 33, who is vice president of creative affairs for Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. “But to say Dino’s role is considerable would be a great understatement. He built the entire site.’’
Sijamic has become an industry player while living in Cambridge. He does his programming at night, when he is not attending the Gordon Institute Master of Science in Engineering Management program at Tufts or working as a systems engineer for Akamai Technologies.
Though he has been to Hollywood parties with Leonard, he does not drop names or use industry lingo.
“I sort of stay in the back and push the technology forward,’’ Sijamic says. “I’m really passionate about the technology and where we can apply it to The Black List. I don’t get too taken aback by the glamour end. I generally don’t speak with a lot of people. Franklin is usually the one who carries off all the interviews.’’
Sijamic, 26, was born in Bosnia and lived in Turkey and Prague before his family moved to the United States and settled in Medford.
He met Leonard a few years ago through his cousin, who is Leonard’s girlfriend.
Leonard had started The Black List out of frustration with how little time he had to discover unconventional and well-written scripts among the endless pitches for big-budget star vehicles.
