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The filmmakers: Battle of the Sexes co-directors (and husband/wife duo) Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Faris, I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie and Angela Robinson, writer/director of Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. The March 7 panel—titled Real Live vs. Reel Life—was ‘tag-team’ moderated by director Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry) and writer Larry Karaszewski (The People vs. O.J. Simpson, Ed Wood), themselves no strangers to IRL-inspired big screen storytelling. Together, Karaszewski and Peirce led a spirited conversation about the risks and rewards of sharing stories about real events and real people....

If you live here in Los Angeles, you’ve probably noticed a sharp increase in the acronym FYC (“for your consideration”) on billboards and bus shelter ads all around the city. This, of course, could only mean one thing—it’s Emmy Awards voting season! A fact that made us start thinking about all the phenomenal shows of the Peak TV era keeping us entertained and engaged during these long months of extended quarantine....

Filmmakers also make New Years Resolutions. They resolve to finally write that script, to edit that footage that’s been sitting on that hard drive or to make better industry connections. Filmmakers resolve to launch crowd-funding campaigns and to watch more films. They resolve to put more time into learning their craft or into developing key crew relationships. They resolve to make things and to make them better. They also resolve to lose weight, stop smoking and call their parents more than once a month....

Why? Because each of these projects comes courtesy of a Film Independent Fellow–aka our favorite people in the world. We’re talking four staggeringly talented filmmakers, representing three projects and seven different Artist Development cohorts, from the early Obama years to the current stewardship of our republic by good ol’ Sleepy Joe. If you ask us, it’s all part of a perfect capper to #AD30, our year-long celebration of three decades of creative mentorship and career-building....

A lot can happen in 12 months. Between last year’s LA Film Festival and now we’ve changed our look, made awards show history and moved the Festival to its new home at the ArcLight Cinemas in Culver City. And while we’re thrilled to bring the LA Film Festival to the Westside (plus other venues throughout the city—see our full schedule), part of our heart will always remain among the concrete corridors and gleaming glass monoliths of downtown....

Goldstein’s doc (which also made its way through Film Independent’s Fast Track program in 2016) follows the English-born pop-star-turned-punk-rocker-turned-actor’s circuitous journey through the entertainment industry towards a more sustainable and fulfilling creative career. Initially a pop phenomenon whose career was launched off of MySpace, Nash quickly bucked the pop star mold, recording punk-tinged music that her label hated and speaking out against the ghettoization of female artists at awards shows....

Additionally, keep checking back on the blog on our YouTube channel to catch the premiere of a second round of Global Media Makers video diaries, coming soon! On my sunset walk, I hear the stunned silence of the passers-by. We encounter each other in our bewildered state, as we figure out our new social cues. Before the sidewalk brings us face to face, we jump to the opposite side and learn how to smile behind our masks....

Wondering what the Fi Doc Lab could do for you? Well, check out the below from Diane Quon, producer of the 2017 Doc Lab Project and 2018 Truer Than Fiction award winner Minding the Gap, now streaming on Hulu. Note: this piece originally ran in December 2017. During the spring of 2017, Bing Liu (Minding the Gap’s director and co-producer) and I received some exciting news: we’d been selected to the Film Independent Documentary Lab....

Farewell Ferris Wheel After a career in music management, Jamie Sisley is making his feature documentary debut with Farewell Ferris Wheel, which explores the dual morality of the H-2B seasonal immigration visa through the lens of the American Carnival and a Mexican town that provides one-third of the carnival’s labor. He said that the Doc Lab was “instrumental in connecting our film with creative feedback and production resources at a time where we needed it them most....

It’s that time of year again, when rising temperatures and cabin fever wrought by interminably long, sunshine-filled days can send even the most agoraphobic and persnickety filmgoer fleeing to the local multiplex. That’s right: it’s summer movie season—that semi-disreputable stretch of release-date real estate stretching from (roughly) Memorial Day to Labor Day, when superheroes, sequels and CGI explosions dominate the cultural conversation. And let’s be real. Who doesn’t love the occasional big-budget summer blockbuster?...

It’s now or never, people. There are just a few days left to grab passes for this weekend’s Film Independent Forum, the two-day conference that brings together dozens of artists and producers, execs and experts–from hot shows like Black-ish to acclaimed films like Nebraska—to share their insights on what’s up at the front lines of the industry and what it takes for emerging artists and producers to break through. Whether you’re dealing with financing headaches, production dilemmas, or just trying to figure out which way is up in the ever-shifting VOD landscape, the Forum is a great place to make connections and learn how to take the next step with your project—whatever that may be....

Name: Katherine Castro Discipline: Actress and Producer Arts Circle Member Since: 2014 How did you get involved in the independent film world or the film world in general?For me, it all started when I was a kid. I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, but from ages five to nine, I lived in the United States in Alexandria, Virginia. I had a thousand coordination problems. So my parents took me to the doctor and the doctor’s prescription basically was: “Your daughter is fine; you just have to enroll her in dance lessons....

There is not a more perfect artist to commemorate the Festival’s 20th anniversary—June 11-June 19—than the renowned pop artist best known for his symbolic depictions of LA: gas stations, palm trees and swimming pools. As art critic Mark Stevens wrote in New York Magazine “Certain artists become a place. Canaletto is Venice. Constable is the English countryside. Homer is New England, and Hopper is Depression-era New York. Ed Ruscha is that kind of artist: He’s Los Angeles....

Just kidding—there’s still so much more to do! Through the shoot, through post-production, marking, distribution and the film’s hopefully very long afterlife on home video and streaming. Feeling overwhelmed yet? Good, you should be. Being a producer isn’t for the faint of heart. But no matter how much steely Objectivist will you’re bringing to the table, any truly effective creative producer knows the value of continued mentorship, community, education and opportunity....

Melodrama often gets a bad rap for its use of archetypes and emphasis on raw emotional appeal (as opposed to intricate narratives or sophisticated character arcs typical of straight drama). For instance, a story about an infertile wife adopting a child who she accidentally injures on the freeway—the scenario sounds unrealistic, melodramatic. Or that of a young man using Google Earth to locate his missing family on the streets of rural India....

For his first narrative feature as director, One & Two, Palermo brought on Autumn Durald (who shot Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto) as his director of photography. The film, about a brother and sister with supernatural abilities growing up in an oppressive environment, arrives in theaters and on VOD this Friday. We caught up with Palermo and discussed how he conceived of the film’s visuals and what it was like working with a cinematographer, while being one himself....

The South Korean director’s first English-language production is an adaptation of the cult French comic book series Le Transperceneige. Set during the onset of the next ice age, the dystopian sci-fi fantasy revolves around a revolution in a class-segregated, non-stop express train carrying the last human survivors on Earth. After smashing South Korean box office records—it sold four million tickets in its first week in theaters—Snowpiercer grabbed five Asian Film Award nominations, including best film and best director....

By Pamela Ezell / LA Film Fest Guest Blogger With 21 films over five decades and numerous international awards, Costa-Gavras is a world figure in cinema. He sat down for a conversation with Academy Award-winner Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) and talked about his career as a filmmaker. Now 80, Costa-Gavras grew up in Greece where his father was sent to prison as a communist. Because of this, even though he had an uncle in the United States – the father of filmmaker Penelope Spheeris – when the time was right for him to leave Greece and go to college, he was barred from emigrating to the U....

If that second category sounds more like you, chances are you’d make an excellent film producer, if you aren’t one already. If so, hopefully you already know that tomorrow is the non-Member deadline to apply to the 2021 Film Independent Producing Lab—July 15. The extended deadline for Film Independent Members is Tuesday, June 31. LAUREN McBRIDE “There are not many opportunities for producers to receive a lab experience during post-production....

The 2021 Someone to Watch Award, along with the Truer Than Fiction and Producers, will be awarded tomorrow–Tuesday, March 16–in a special online Grant Winners reveal presentation right here on filmindependent.org. As a title, Newlyweeds–for which director Shaka King won the 20th annual Someone to Watch Award at the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards Grant Awards Presentation–is misleading on multiple counts. First, it conjures up images of some direct-to-market stoner comedy with a punny punchline like, “They vow to love, honor and o-blaze!...