So! Please enjoy this round-up of Fi Presents filmmaker Q&As from this year’s incredible roster of newly-minted Academy Award nominees. And if you want to see what’s coming up next in the program, just click here. Good luck filling out those Oscar ballots! ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT About: All Quiet on the Western Front tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I....
As always, the annual Spirit Awards brunch provided an opportunity for the current nominees to rub shoulders with past winners, honorees, press and other members of the Film Independent family. The brunch also saw the announcement of three Film Independent Spirit Award grant winners, whose total take in unrestricted filmmaker grants totaled a whopping $75,000. The winners were announced by brunch co-hosts Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) and Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black....
Though not formalized into its current form until 1970, the antecedents of Black History Month reach back nearly 100 years—to 1926, when “Negro History Week” was first developed as a concept by author, advocate and historian Carter G. Woodson. This year, the annual month-long observance of key figures, events and achievements in the long arc of the African diaspora feels as urgent as ever, following a turbulent year marked by the ongoing police slayings of Black Americans and eruption of Black Lives Matter protests in response....
It seems like only yesterday (or at least April) that Film Independent launched our brand-new Fiscal Sponsorship program for filmmakers—introducing a new way for visual storytellers to access exclusive funding opportunities and offer tax-deductible benefits to financial donors by leveraging Film Independent’s own 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. Which, if you’re not sure how it works, don’t worry. Just click here or watch the below video: Since the program’s launch, we’ve received dozens and dozens of applications....
Anderson’s filmography has of course been defined by its extremely fussy (in a good way!) design aesthetic and specificity of comedic tone. And for a project with as many literal moving parts as Dogs, at first Anderson’s unwavering vision presented his collaborators with some daunting production challenges. “With Wes, it’s always this dense thing,” said Dawson, who first met Anderson on Fantastic Mr. Fox, where he was the film’s VFX supervisor....
But not before we give out some awards! The 2018 LA Film Festival Awards Brunch happened just moments ago, September 28, at the Loft at the W Hotel in Hollywood, celebrating jury prize honorees from the Festival’s U.S. Fiction, World Fiction, Documentary, Nightfall, LA Muse and short form categories. Audience Awards were also presented for Fiction Feature, Documentary Feature, Short Film and Web Series, all presented by the esteemed LA Film Festival Jurors....
Trey Edward Shults has made three feature films so far and, technically, only one of them (2017’s It Comes at Night) is a horror movie. But from the opening shot of 2015’s Krisha (which won him the John Cassavetes Award at the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards in February of 2016)—a close-up of a woman’s face, stricken with an emotion we can’t quite place yet and accompanied by rumbling, ominous music—it’s clear that Shults will be exercising a talent for unnerving us, no matter what genre he may be working in....
In Part One of our two-part conversation with Emmy-nominated The Flight Attendant set decorator Jessica Petruccelli, she discussed how set dressing transformed the show’s pivotal Bangkok Hotel Suite set to distinguish between protagonist Cassie’s (Kailey Cuoco) hallucinations vs. reality, along with the production design team’s use of reflective surfaces to intensify the character’s emotional scaffolding. Today, we continue with what the see-through shower in Ani’s loft really means, as well as the significance of that giant rabbit sculpture in Alex’s office....
There are a lot of ways we support independent filmmakers, but one of the most gratifying is—for obvious reasons—handing out cash! No wonder Film Independent is thrilled to announce a brand new grant program from Film Independent in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Sloan Distribution Grant is a $50,000 award each year for the next three years to help fund the distribution of a finished film with a science and technology theme....
Take the Lead (2006 dir. Liz Friedlander) “The man proposes the step. It is the woman’s choice to accept by following. To follow takes as much strength as to lead.” –Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas) When I first heard this simple-yet-poignant line from Banderas’s lead character in the 2006 drama Take The Lead, I knew the film would be a different kind of dance movie. Inspired by the true story of Pierre Dulaine, the famous Palestinian-born British ballroom dancer and instructor, director Liz Friedlander’s film takes us through Dulaine’s 1994 initiative (“Dancing Classrooms”—more on this below) aimed at bringing ballroom dancing to underprivileged students in the New York public school system, using dance as a way to instill the values of respect, dignity, self-esteem, teamwork and empathy....
The result? An increased dependence by overworked Americans on 24-hour daycare providers to assist with childcare, which in turn can tax daycare staff and resources to their limits. This cycle of desperation and makeshift family is the subject of filmmaker Loira Limbal’s new nonfiction feature Through the Night, which spotlights the experiences of two working mothers and childcare providers—“Nunu” and “Pop Pop” Hogan—as their personal and professional lives intersect with a 24-hour daycare in New Rochelle, New York....
Filmmakers and close friends Jennifer Prediger and Jess Weixler, whose co-directorial debut Trouble Dolls had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival last month, have incredible chemistry, both onscreen and off. In addition to writing and directing their film together, they also starred in it, as a pair of codependent bohemian best friends living in a tiny illegal sublet in New York who come to LA for a long weekend, where they have a tarot reading and then, naturally, audition for a reality TV talent show with a performance art piece....
“The movie is written three times: once, when you write it, once when you shoot it, once when you edit it.” Iron Man 3 screenwriter Drew Pearce on the writing process at this year’s Coffee Talks: Screenwriters. By Wendy Chuong / LA Film Fest Guest Blogger Katherine Fugate, Drew Pearce, Karen McCullah and James Vanderbilt came to the 2013 LA Film Fest to discuss their personal approaches to the screenwriting process, but not without first revealing a few secrets about themselves....
How to protect your original work is just one of the questions Callif will tackle in Film Independent’s monthly video blog Legal Ease. “Ease” usually isn’t the first word that comes to mind when it comes to legal issues pertaining to the entertainment industry. But that’s where we come in. Each month, we will post a new Legal Ease video from Callif to help filmmakers sift through the tricky business of entertainment law....
For 41 years, the Miami Film Festival has been showcasing innovative, inclusive work from new and emerging independent creators worldwide. Unsurprisingly, many of said creators are our own beloved Film Independent Fellows. In fact, a whopping 38 Fi Fellows will be in the Magic City next week to show new work, when the 2024 edition of MFF kicks off on Friday, April 5. And of course, by “Fellows” here, we mean filmmakers who have been directly supportede by Film Independent’s Lab programs, Project Involve, Fast Track and Global Media Makers, as well as Emerging Filmmaker Award winners, grant recipients and Film Independent Spirit Award nominees....
For much of Hollywood’s Golden Age, musical comedies were a sure-fire way to make a hit—especially if the poster had a name like Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds (RIP) or Fred & Ginger. But somewhere along the way, as film evolved to begin exploring new subject matters and formal techniques, musical comedies gradually seemed to lose both their sparkle and their reach. But even within the broader category of “musicals,” there are subgenres that have continued to experience some level of distinction and success over the years....
This year of 2020, the Forum is being reimagined as a weeklong virtual event, taking place July 31-August 7 and taking advantage of all the possibilities that a virtual setting will allow—broadening the scope of the event and bringing the Forum, for the first time, to filmmakers across the world. What can you expect? Formal programming will be announced soon—follow us on social—though we can guarantee another great year of wide-ranging and inclusive keynotes, conversations, filmmaker panels, networking opportunities, pitch sessions and screenings designed to help pour jet fuel on your film career....
The founder of one of the US’s first female-owned surf shops, Powers is currently combining her two passions in One More—a hybrid horror/surf movie feature about a group of coastal vampires who love to hang ten nearly as much as they love sucking blood. Currently in development, the project will be Powers’ first as producer. “It’s really what Film Independent is all about,” she says. And if you’ve ever thought about supporting Film Independent—at any level—be aware: time is running out to make a year-end tax-deductible donation for the calendar year 2018....
Then again, not everyone has the means (or patience) to battle the overcrowded flights and oft-treacherous canyon drives to attend the festival in person; for a lot of us, we’ll be soaking up all of the garrulous Sundance chatter from the comfort of our Twitter feed. But whether you’re observing from afar or in person, whether you’re a filmmaker, fan, journalist or simply a curious observer of free-range cineastes in their natural environment, there’s a lot to be excited about....
As an art form, documentaries are as wide-ranging and malleable as any other type of narrative medium. Often, though, we associate nonfiction film with deeply personal stories about groups or individuals revolving around complex social problems. In this mode, docs can serve as catalysts generating public awareness, coalition-building and spurring people to take direct action. And while documentarians often develop a strong commitment to the issues addressed in their films, questions of financial sustainability as well as simply knowing when to finally move on to the next project may conflict with pressure on the filmmaker’s to expand their engagement around a particular issue....
