Robert Hawk, longtime advisor to filmmakers and film festivals, has had his own business, ICI (Independent Consultation for Independents) for 15 years. Producer of Kimberly Reed's Prodigal Sons, Dayna Goldfine & Daniel Geller's Ballets Russes, David Munro's Full Grown Men, Jim Fall's Trick, Alex & Andrew Smith's The Slaughter Rule and Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy, Hawk has been a part of the independent film scene for 25 years.

Starting with his involvement in documentary as a researcher on Rob Epstein's Oscar-winning The Times of Harvey Milk, he has been credited with discovering and/or nurturing the talents of such filmmakers as Epstein, Kevin Smith (beginning with Clerks), Joe Carnahan (from Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane to Pride and Glory), Ed Burns (The Brothers McMullen), David Siegel and Scott McGehee (The Deep End; Suture), Ghazi Albuliwi (West Bank Brooklyn), Adam Bhala Logue (Bomb the System), Rodrigo Bellott (Sexual Dependency), Nathaniel Kahn (My Architect), Paul Devlin (Blast, Power Trip, SlamNation), and Geller & Goldfine (Emmy award, Kids of Survival). He has consulted on films as varied as Terry George's Some Mother's Son, Tim Blake Nelson's Eye of God, Lisa Krueger's Manny and Lo, Tom Bezucha's Big Eden, Jon Shear's Urbania, and Smith's Dogma. He has also consulted on hundreds of documentaries, including Oscar winners/nominees such as Common Threads, Regret to Inform, In the Shadow of the Stars, Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter and Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern.

Hawk served on the Advisory Selection Committee of the Sundance Film Festival for its entire existence (1987-1998). He has been an advisory board member for IFP/NY's Independent Film Week, AIFA (American Independents and Features Abroad) at the Berlin Film Festival and First Look (Tribeca Film Center/Eastman Kodak), the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and numerous other festivals.  He has served on many festival juries, both domestic and international, and has curated special film series for, among others, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco, the International Documentary Congress in Los Angeles, the Melbourne Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival.

He founded San Francisco's Film Arts Festival in 1985, a showcase for independent filmmakers of Northern California, and was its director for eight years.  As Exhibition Coordinator for the Film Arts Foundation, he not only programmed exhibition events but viewed and critiqued films at all stages of production, consulted with makers on festival and distribution strategies, and was an outreach resource for exhibitors, programmers, curators, festival directors and distributors throughout the world.

Before his involvement in film, Hawk was a production stage manager in the theater.