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All eyes are on our neighbor to the north this week, thanks to the Toronto International Film Festival. We are proud to announce that 14 Film Independent Fellows and 25 of our Members will be screening at the star-studded festival, and many of them—including writer/director/producer Ramin Bahrani with 99 Homes, producer Pamela Koffler with Still Alice, starring Julianne Moore and Kristen Stewart (as Moore’s daughter) and Daniel and Ben Barnz (director and producer, respectively) with Cake, starring a decidedly de-glammed Jennifer Aniston—are already grabbing a hunk of the buzz....

War Story When: Now playing Where: Theaters, IFC VOD Director: Mark Jackson Starring: Catherine Keener, Ben Kingsley Why We’re Excited: Winner of the 2012 “Someone to Watch” Film Independent Spirit Award for his directorial debut Without, filmmaker Mark Jackson is back with his second feature, starring Catherine Keener as a traumatized war zone photojournalist. The second installment of what will be a trilogy, the film is a psychologically complex character study that has gotten a lot of attention for its powerhouse performance from Keener, who appears in almost every frame....

Seriously, though—there’s something about the rabbit, as an animal, that’s weirdly unsettling. The creatures have occult totemic significance going all the way back to prehistory; an inherent ironic juxtaposition of such a cuddly-seeming mammal, freighted with some extra bit of eerie darkness. From the ominous imaginary familiars of Harvey to the boiled bunnies of Fatal Attraction, filmmakers have been using rabbits—and rabbit imagery—to unsettle. So! In honor of Easter this weekend, here are five of our favorite horrifying hares from independent film: DONNIE DARKO (2001) Director: Richard Kelly Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore Why We Love It: “Have you ever seen a portal?...

On Tuesday, February 21 at Film Independent HQ, curious Members gathered together in pursuit of advice from veteran post-production producer Nancy Kirhoffer, who has successfully shepherded numerous films—including The Night Before, Mud and 50/50—through post-production. BUILDING YOUR TEAM AND UNDERSTANDING DELIVERABLES Kirhoffer’s first piece of advice was: if you’re a smart filmmaker, you’ve already brought on a post-producer during prep. And if you’re very smart, you and your producers have collaborated with the post-producer regarding the budget, setting up lab deals and even deciding on a camera package....

For our inaugural edition of Detail Oriented, we were honored to talk to Mitch Paulson, Supervising Digital Colorist of the Film Independent Spirit Award nominated historical drama Loving. Paulson’s credits—of the nearly 180 titles listed on IMDB—include such big budget fare as Rogue One and Skyfall, as well as indie darlings like Selma and Straight Outta Compton. Often credited as the Digital Intermediate process, or “DI” (going back to the days when movies always started out and ended up in the analog medium of celluloid), a colorist adjusts and transforms footage into the final shot you see on the big screen....

That was Tim Miller, director of February’s hit superhero comedy Deadpool and one of the three panelists in attendance at the Directors Coffee Talk last Sunday, June 5 at the LA Film Festival. Joining him were filmmakers Patricia Riggen (Miracles from Heaven, La Misma Luna) and Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry, Carrie). Peirce also moderated. “One thing about directors is, you never get to work with other directors,” Peirce said as she explained the plan for the day, a laid back talk between the directors and the Coffee Talk audience, at the historic Culver Hotel....

And guess what? If you’re reading this, you’re already part of that community, even if you’re not yet a Film Independent Member or Fellow. All we require is a genuine love of visual storytelling and a slightly above-average degree of innate awesomeness. The tough part, really, is not in how to become part of our Film Independent family, but in being able to narrow down any particular trend that can quickly and easily characterize us....

In this special guest post, 2019 Fast Track Fellow Tom Huang talks about his experience of the film financing market and the production of his new feature Dealing with Dad, which will have a special screening at the Film Independent Theater next week, May 22 and is now available to rent on all major platforms. We had talked to our share of wealthy dentists interested in making the next Jason Bourne movie (we were not that) when I saw the deadline was approaching for Fi’s Fast Track....

What they have in common, of course, is science—and the support of the Sloan Film Program, which in each case provided critical support during the films’ development, production and release. And on the second day of the 2022 Sloan Film Summit, two of the projects’ creators—To Dust co-writer/co-producer Jason Begue and Sweet Potatoes writer/director Rommel Villa—spent an hour discussing their science-informed cinematic adventured with Film Independent Associate Director of Artist Development Angela Lee....

Los Angeles Film Festival Associate Programmer Samuel Douek talked with Oriented director Jake Witzenfield about his film that follows three gay Palestinian-Israelis who offer an intimate glimpse into their lives as the personal is relentlessly made political. Working against media misrepresentations of being oppressed by Palestinian communities, and struggling against the occupation from the “inside,” these young people are neither sell-outs nor in need of saving. How did you meet the subjects of your documentary?...

“I feel like an artist of any type should be like the jazz musicians were, where they interact with each other and share ideas and concepts and information about how to get to the next level,” he said in an interview with Film Independent in 2012. Singleton’s journey through the film business was an extemporary study in artistic integrity and entrepreneurial hustle. His feature debut, 1991’s landmark Boyz N the Hood (made when Singleton was still fresh from USC film school) made him the youngest filmmaker ever—and the first African American—to be nominated for Best Director at the Oscars....

Years ago I was an assistant on the FOX animated sitcom Bob’s Burgers—back when it was still a brand new and little-known show. After working there, I watched as Bob’s was renewed, year after year, for 10 seasons (and counting), garnering tons of awards and becoming a massive success. While there I worked with John Dylan Keith, one of two composers who create original music for the show, who was there when it all began and has watched as the quirky comedy has become a favorite of critics and viewers alike....

Luckily, Warren G’s new documentary (directed by Karam Gill)—aptly titled G-Funk—sets out chronicle the music’s rise, charting the friendship between Warren, Nate and Snoop as they collaborate together to create one of the most essential styles in West Coast hip hop. And what better place for the film to have its LA premiere than at the LA Film Festival? G-Funk will screen at the Festival on June 16 at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in downtown....

For some, fall means going back to school. For LA’s biggest film fans, it means going back to the Bing—for Live Reads. The fourth Live Read season kicks off on October 16 with American Beauty. As in the past, the cast will be a surprise until that night (unless director Jason Reitman tweets it out just before.) Only Film Independent Members can buy Live Read series passes, which go on sale tomorrow at noon (Members: watch your email for details....

On Wednesday, fans of Native American cinema had the opportunity to see Mekko (pronounced meeko), the new film from Oklahoma writer-director Sterlin Harjo screening in the festival’s U.S. Fiction Competition. Harjo was back home in the Sooner State attending another screening of the film, but Jasper Zweibel (who, along with Film Independent Fellow Chad Burris, produced the film) was on hand for a post-screening Q&A. Zweibel said Harjo’s mission from the start was to tell a story that felt true to where he is from....

It’s great when filmmaking can be a family affair, which is why we’re excited to kick off the 2024 edition of our community spotlight series with writer Hank Jones. Because in addition to working as a supervising producer on the ABC procedural Will Trent and being part of Film Independent’s Project Involve and Episodic Lab, Jones is also the spouse of last July 2023 Member Lens subject Thembi Banks. But while Banks’ trip through Fi Artist Development may have laid the groundwork for Jones to follow, his narrative perspective–and desire to tell stories rooted in universal truth–are uniquely his own....

As we enter November, aka Food Month, it’s appropriate to invoke the old cliché: “You eat first with your eyes.” And if that’s true, then with cinema it might be equally fair to say, “You watch first with your ears.” After all, sound is literally half of the modern moviegoing experience. Yet too often, filmmakers—and particularly filmmakers of the cash-and-time-strapped indie sort—relegate sound to an afterthought, something to figure out months later in the mixing booth, often agonizingly....

As a CPA, what led you to working on film productions? After I graduated college, I worked for CPA firms and got my CPA certificate and license. I took a job with a New York City-based firm (now Prager Metis, then Prager and Fenton) and I did not know in the interview that they were deeply involved in the recording industry in the 80s. And their job for these recording artists, while they were also a traditional accounting firm, was to manage their finances, to audit their record deals—this is when people actually made money in the recording industry—and to go on tour with them and administer the books, pay per diem, collect revenue, account tickets and control the madness....

THIS MONTH: BLADE RUNNER (1982) V. AUTÓMATA (2014) The history of Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult classic Blade Runner is a controversial one—especially considering the many different versions of the film that had continued to trickle out into the marketplace over the last 20+ years. Creatively speaking, the 2007 “Final Cut” version is Scott’s preferred iteration, with key plot and tonal changes made as well as enhancements to the film’s use of technology....

Such televisual plenty is the great benefit of our current “Peak TV” era. But amid the gold rush, one question remains: how do you find something, y’know, good? It starts with supporting TV’s creators and allowing aspiring showrunners the space and resources to develop as artists. Enter Film Independent’s Episodic Lab, which today announces its 2019 Lab Fellows as well as the recipient of our $10,000 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Film Independent Episodic Lab grant....