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It didn’t take long after finishing my first indie feature for me to understand why my fellow filmmakers are so frustrated and disillusioned upon completing their films. After fielding offers from distributors, which were typically “all rights,” little or no advance, a 50K marketing fee, a 15% commission, and a minimum 10-year contract, I looked for other options—and there really weren’t any. After giving it some thought, discussing it with friends, and reading a few marketing books, I created a truly grassroots marketing plan: a road trip....

HOW TO WORK THE AMERICAN FILM MARKET The American Film Market is an annual event that takes place over the course of eight days in Santa Monica. Here, over 8,000 industry leaders participate in a whirlwind of deal making, film screenings, seminars and networking events. Attendees including acquisition and development executives, distributors, agents, financiers, film commissioners, writers, directors, producers and more. As the market is a key opportunity of independent filmmakers globally, Jonathan Wolf, AFM Managing Director and Executive Vice President of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, was gracious enough to stop by Film Independent for a crash course on how to “work” the event and capitalize on its opportunities....

So you want to be a filmmaker or work in entertainment, but have no clue where to start? Well, thank God you’re reading this right now! Each year, Film Independent provides programs and Labs dedicated to helping filmmakers from marginalized communities get their stories made. Does that sound like you? Great! Keep reading, ’cause here are some application tips and tricks to impress, as shared by Film Independent Artist Development team members including Francisco Velasquez (Associate Director, Project Involve), Dea Vasquez (Senior Manager, Project Involve) and Daniel Cardone (Artist Development Associate, Nonfiction and Fiscal Sponsorship)....

99 HOMES (2015, dir. Ramin Bahrani) “America doesn’t bail out the losers. America was built by bailing out winners, by rigging a nation of the winners, for the winners, by the winners.” –Rich Carver (played by Michael Shannon), 99 Homes Released in theaters one year ago next month, 99 Homes is critically acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani’s latest exploration into America’s broken social order. This time, his focus is the great “Foreclosure-gate” of 2010, which in the wake of the economic crisis a few years earlier saw widespread and erroneous home foreclosures and eviction proceedings perpetrated by several large banks and realtors....

Speaking at Hollywood’s Harmony Gold Theater alongside cinematographer Ante Cheng and producer Alan Pao, the conversation was moderated by Angela Lee, Film Independent’s Senior Manager of Artist Development. Chon decisively stated his desire to make films exploring the intersection of different ethnic communities rather than insulated stories focused solely on the Asian and Asian American experience. While the overwhelming box office success of films such as Crazy Rich Asians has created momentum for projects starring Asian actors and led by Asian directors, Chon’s focus and priorities are different, he said....

Just like how a features have their dramatic highs, lows and changes of pace, TV music must similarly respect the shape of the story—guiding audiences through epic battles, intimate moments, thrilling tension, comedy and more. And film and TV composers both use a variety of techniques, from full orchestras to samples, electronics and other sounds. Most of the techniques used score features are the same ones used to score television—using recurring themes for characters, places and other story elements....

Ready to dive into some worlds you haven’t realized yet? Check out the Documentary Competition at Los Angeles Film Festival and you’ll find a unique list of films that explore stories about rehab, relationship dynamics, women in the literary world, and the monopolization of the global economy. Who are the rising talents behind these films? We got the inside scoop on their work, their journeys to the big screen, and their perspectives on the power of docs....

The fact that the two performers are married IRL would seem a lethal dose of comic domesticity. Yet, it appears to work. And now, the duo are your official hosts of the upcoming 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 6. “We are sincerely excited to be hosting the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards. We hope to get a little rowdy, but it’ll mainly be legitimate cinematic discourse,” said Mullally and Offerman in a joint statement....

BEST FATHER-KNOWS-BEST MOMENT In the classic scene when Jim’s Dad instructs his son on the finer points pornographic magazines, Sharon Stone flawlessly delivers her unique fatherly advice to Ari Graynor with hilarious nods, winks and raised eyebrows. BEST SUPPORTIVE GIRLFRIEND John Cho is both completely believable and utterly hilarious in the role of Heather, the choir girl who slowly falls for the lacrosse jock Oz. MOST ANIMATED MILF Here’s to you Mr....

Written and directed by famed indie auteur Andrew Bujalski, Girls follows one long, hard day in the life of restaurant manager Lisa Conroy, the harried den mother of a suburban Texas “breastaurant” (think Hooters) staffed by a daffy-but-well-meaning menagerie of young waitresses, each with their own unique set of issues—which soon become Lisa’s issues, too. Hall can also currently be seen in the Showtime original comedy Black Monday, which was shooting at the time of Film Independent’s We The People inclusion summit at the LA Film Festival in September....

Where to Find Content How to Watch Content on your TV AppleTV The main competitor to the Roku, also at $99, Apple’s little box gets more and more polished with every update. Using the same über-simple remote as the one that powers Apple laptops, it is easy to use and designed to work in harmony with your iTunes library (and naturally NOT the Google Play Store). Its AirPlay feature allows you to push content directly from your iPhone, iPad, or iTunes library on your computer....

As yet another year draws to a close with the nation’s political strife reaching a fever pitch, it might be advisable to do yourself a huge holiday season favor and mute your news feeds–at least for a week or two. Instead, why not spend some quality time catching up on a shortlist of amazing 2019 documentaries? Below, I’ve collected a list of six titles you certainly don’t want to miss....

Film Independent Producing Lab Fellow and Creative Advisor Rebecca Green (It Follows, I’ll See You in My Dreams) moderated the panel, which appeared at the Festival as an extension of her new Dear Producer website, of which Green is editor-in-chief. Articles from Dear Producer run monthly on Film Independent’s blog. The event took place at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills to a sold-out crowd....

But at their best, docs about filmmakers and filmmaking can become invaluable historical documents that contextualize and explain just how, exactly, the flicks we love (or love to hate) get to be that way—or in some cases, don’t get made at all. Done right, behind-the-scenes docs can become as indispensible, iconic and canonical as the films whose (inevitably rocky) birth they help immortalize—full of high stakes, ticking clocks and outsized characters with fragile egos and hair-trigger tempers....

And here we are, just three scant months later, ready to watch as approximately one-fifth of those nominees become actual Spirit Award winners. Pure craziness. Speaking of craziness: it’s insane how many awesome people will be joining the show this year as presenters—including Fred Armisen, Chadwick Boseman, Carrie Brownstein, Timothée Chalamet, John Cho, Jason Clarke, Zoey Deutch, Ava DuVernay, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jon Hamm, Ethan Hawke, Salma Hayak Pinault, Lil Rey Howery, Spike Lee, Ben Mendelsohn, Janelle Monáe, Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Olsen, Robert Pattinson, Margot Robbie, Amanda Seyfried, Sarah Silverman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Lena Waithe and more!...

Our point (other than just transcribing our verbatim internal monologue this morning into a clever blog lede) is this: that writing is hard. And those who do it—particularly at the creatively inspired and logistically challenging level of a writer of feature films—are, well… if not heroes, then at least heroes within the realm of filmmaking. Every movie of course starts with an idea for a story, which must then be elaborated upon, sequenced, calibrated, stress-tested and finally wrenched into tangible existence from the void by long-term committed effort....

For some of us, our favorite do-gooder organizations just happen to be the ones we work for—I’m speaking of course, on behalf of myself and all of us here at 9911 W. Pico, of Film Independent itself, which for over three decades has championed creativity, innovation and diversity in visual storytelling, soldiering on through multiple bad economies and a persistently volatile global landscape. But any good that Film Independent has done throughout the years has been as the result of the collected efforts of literally thousands of Fellows, Members, staffers and other fellow travelers from our odd and enthusiastic community of cinematic rebels....

After a recent free screening of The Grand Budapest Hotel for Film Independent Members, writer/director Wes Anderson shared some behind-the-scenes stories with Film Independent at LACMA curator Elvis Mitchell about the making of his new film, which stars Ralph Fiennes as a concierge of a big hotel in the ‘30s. Cast members Adam Stockhausen and Tony Revolori were also on hand for the Q&A. In typical Anderson style, it’s an ensemble film—with Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, F....

We are living in a golden age of television; never before has there been such high-quality TV, nor so many choices. At October’s Film Independent Forum, we presented a panel of top showrunners, writers and producers of current series to talk about what it really takes to launch a show. Indiewire’s TV editor Ben Travers moderated the panel, featuring Nicole Yorkin, writer and executive producer on The Killing; Jake Avnet, COO of Indigenous Media and executive producer of WIGS; Kenya Barris, creator and executive producer of Black-ish; and Ray McKinnon, creator and executive producer of Rectify....

Ryan McGarry’s emergency room doc Code Black and Janis Nords’ coming-of-age drama Mother, I Love You win the DIRECTV Documentary and Narrative Awards. Audience Award winners include Short Term 12, American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs and Sony Pictures Classics’ Wadjda. Short Film and Music Video Awards also given. After 11 days and numerous films and events, the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival has come to an end....