Posts

It’s one hell of a narrative. But you don’t need us to tell you that. After all, you can hear all about it in person during Jordan Peele’s keynote address at the upcoming Film Independent Forum October 20-22 where Peele will add his voice to an elite roster showcasing many of Hollywood’s most fascinating and accomplished artists and executives. Past Forum keynotes have included talks from such luminaries as Werner Herzog, Ava DuVernay, Ted Sarandos, Jill Soloway, Jason Blum and many, many more....

Branagh just smiled. From Branagh’s early filmography, which includes adaptations of Shakespeare plays, to Thor, to his latest, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, the actor/director has remained loyal to his inner Shakespeare by instilling the playwright’s technique in an array of his own work. It was just one of the themes Mitchell and Branagh explored at Tuesday night’s free Members-only Film Independent at LACMA screening of the fifth installment of the Tom Clancy series, which follows Ryan’s start in the CIA as he goes from junior financial analyst to field agent....

Remember hearing about people trampling each other and pepper-spraying one another while standing in the Black Friday lines? The LA Film Fest Rush Line is nothing like that. By Wendy Chuong / LA Film Fest Guest Blogger I arrived at 6:00pm, a solid half hour before the recommended time, and the Rush Line for Only God Forgives had already wrapped around the length of the West Garage at L.A. LIVE....

“The short answer to that question is ‘Yes,’” says Callif. “If you are producing a film, you received funding for it or you’re funding it yourself, you should form a corporate entity…and typically what filmmakers do is an LLC.” Watch Callif explain why forming a corporate entity is so important: The necessity of LLCs is just one of the points Callif covers in Film Independent’s monthly LEGAL EASE series. If you have a question for attorney Lisa Callif, please send them to us at education@filmindependent....

For its factual accuracy, we like: “Producers are the people in charge of assembling all the creative and material elements to make a project happen.” But our favorite reply is simply this: “What doesn’t a producer do?” We’re thrilled today to announce the six incredible individuals who, as our new 2020 Producing Lab Fellows, are now that much closer to a long career full of creative problem-solving and financial plate-spinning—their eventual geriatric forearms sure to worn into knotty clubs of scar tissue following a lifetime spent in the film industry, endlessly pulling rabbit after rabbit out of hat after hat....

As an indie film producer and proud Film Independent Member—not to mention Project Involve alum Producing Lab Fellow, and current Participant narrative feature development exec—Nájera knows the value of strong artistic community, another thing he credits to his formative experiences in the vibrant Guadalajara creative community, even serving for many years as programmer and producer of the Guadalajara International Film Festival. It was at the festival that Nájera first became aware of Film Independent, during a cultural exchange at the adjacent Guadalajara International Book Fair with the city of Los Angeles....

Su Fang Tham is no stranger to taking initiative. Tham’s early love of the cinematic craft led her to vigorously pursue an interest in story development in parallel with a demanding day job as a full-time tax CPA. Tham relocated to Los Angeles, where she wasted no time in her industry networking efforts — at one point even cold-contacting over 70 different development execs to offer her script coverage services....

What better way to ring in Film Independent’s 2018 Directors Close-Up series than with writer/director Greta Gerwig and the all-star team that brought the filmmaker’s acclaimed 2017 coming of age drama Lady Bird to the big-screen? Joining a radiant Gerwig on the February 7 panel were cast members Jordan Rodrigues and Marielle Scott and costume designer April Napier. Indie darling Jay Duplass served as moderator. The evening commenced with deserved praise for Gerwig, weaving through discussions about the process of making a first film, the cast’s experiences on set and culminating with a lively Q&A....

That sweet surprise was quickly followed by another when Pras—on stage with singer Kenna and two guitarists—leaned over and whispered in the ear of one of the musicians his idea for what to do next. It was a secret plan, inspired by Kenna, (who had just rocked the house with her stunning interpretation of the Mia part) and her journey from her native Florida to California to pursue her music dreams....

Soul was directed by first-time filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson: musician, drummer, DJ, songwriter, author and journalist; a pleasure to hear speak in any venue, sharing his unique, hyper-literate perspective on composition, performance, recording and music history in general. But despite his knowledge and access, Questlove himself had been skeptical that footage of the 1969 concerts in Harlem’s Mount Morris Park—featuring icons such as Stevie Wonder, The Staples Singers, Sly Stone, B....

A few months before the Summit, at a meeting in January, Rich Ross, the new President of Discovery Channel, had said “enough”—no more fake stuff. Reality shall be, well, real. The sea change, if there really is one, is being driven by a growing sense that young audiences are turned off by the idea of scripted reality, or fabricated truth. Either it has to be scripted, or it has to be real....

Look, it doesn’t take a MacArthur-level genius to see that the world could use some good news right about now. A reason to celebrate and get excited. A reason to fill your cup up with anticipation and cheer. In short: something to look forward to. Unfortunately, we here at Film Independent do not (currently) have the ability to provide kitties and puppies to each and every US and global citizen in need of total and immediate emotional uplift....

Ryan Coogler knows who he wants and why. It’s great to work with a director who has a strong vocabulary when it comes to the craft of acting. He is clear on tone, POV and intention. When I first read the script, I left with my own impression. However, Ryan’s description of the narrative in our discussions infused further detail and dimension to the story that I hadn’t seen before....

In covering Film Independent’s The Portal, an immersive storytelling showcase this past September, I was blown away for the second year in a row (see my coverage of the inaugural 2018 edition of The Portal here) by the filmmaking on display across both the program’s narrative and documentary lineup. The experience sparked a desire to simply know more about how filmmakers are effectively utilizing XR technology in nonfiction storytelling. Like, what are some of the considerations a documentarian needs to consider when getting ready to tackle a VR project?...

Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals is a movie about what happens when a professionally successful gallerist named Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) receives the manuscript of a novel written by her ex-husband, Tony (Jake Gyllenhaal). Tony’s novel (whose story gradually unfolds as a film-within-the-film) is about a hellish road trip in which a teacher, his wife and their daughter encounter a gang of ne’er-do-wells on a dark deserted road in West Texas....

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a beautiful, strange and poetic film. Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, the film focuses on Clementine (Kate Winslet) and Joel (Jim Carrey), a seemingly normal-ish couple navigating a truly unusual love story. When Joel catches word that Clementine has erased him from her memory via an odd procedure performed by the mysterious Lacuna Corporation, he attempts to do the same....

In recent years, Hollywood has undoubtedly made great strides to more fully represent the stories of women, people of color and LGBTQ+ people onscreen. But incorporating disabled talent into key roles both in front of and behind the camera has been much, much slower, boiling down to issues of access—in multiple senses of the word—for the disabled and non-disabled alike. Such was the topic at the Film Independent We The People panel “The Invisible Minority: People with Disabilities,” which took place at the 2018 LA Film Festival in September....

Ridley cited All Is By My Side as the kind of story a studio would shy away from because it wasn’t the iconic rock star who had the drive to succeed, but rather, someone few people have ever heard of. Because Ridley took the independent road to get it made, he was able to tell the story his way. “To make a movie like that and have the impact emotionally that I want to have“ led Ridley to the opportunity to direct American Crime....

And here’s where Film Independent’s Fast Track program – in its 20th edition this year – comes in to inject some much-needed financial and producing boost to 15 projects via the 2022 Fast Track Film Finance Market, taking place online from November 14 – 17, 2022. The program is an intensive, four-day film-financing market where participants eager to push their projects forward are connected with established financiers, production companies, agents, managers, and other film industry professionals who can really elevate their project to the next step....

Cassie’s response is poignant, speaking volumes about the misogynistic culture in academia and beyond–“Can you guess what every woman’s worst nightmare is?” Fennell’s feature directorial debut is a transgressive male-comeuppance power fantasy–and emotional roller coaster!–as Mulligan’s barista-by-day prowls for would-be date rapists at night, ready to teach them a lesson they won’t soon forget. Still traumatized by her friend’s suicide years after the assault, Cassie drops out of medical school and proceeds with only one goal in life: to dismantle a broken system, one bastard at a time....