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But! As screenwriter R.T. Thorne contends, television “has begun to tell the stories I think our favorite films used to tell.” And on the heels of awards season, scripted series veteran Wendy Calhoun (writer/producer, Prodigal Son; Empire) moderated the 2023 Film Independent Director’s Close-Up session “Small Screen, Big Picture,” highlighting the 2023 Spirit Award nominees for Best New Scripted Series. Featured on the panel were the creators of some of the most exciting projects that have hit the small screen within the past year, including: Soo Hugh, creator of Pachinko; Annmarie Morais, showrunner and co-creator of The Porter, alongside Thorne, a director and executive producer on the show; and Station Eleven creator Patrick Somerville....

Film Independent of course has been there every step of way, advancing, expanding and evolving its mission to support inclusion, innovation and uniqueness of vision among visual storytellers. And 2019 was a banner year for the organization—a fact you can read all about in our yearly impact report. And though we strive to be as thrifty and budget-conscious as the moviemakers we support, it takes a lot to keep our programs and resources humming—which is where you come in....

Regardless of what any individual or institution may tell you otherwise, the truest definition of “American” is “anyone who lives in America”—if they want to be, that is. Which admittedly isn’t always the case. But whatever! We’re getting into the politically correct weeds here. Point is: with significant exceptions this is largely at a land, at present, of immigrants, transients and refugees, both political and economic. And while there’s often a great deal heartbreak and struggle associated with the immigrant experience in America, it’s also proven—from Charlie Chaplin to Minari—to be fertile ground for narrative storytelling....

From door-slamming farce to soul-searing character studies, few situations lend themselves quite as well to the construction of compelling narrative drama than someone pretending to be something they’re not. Really, who can’t relate? We’ve all been guilty of presenting different faces at various times to suit our needs or ambitions. And sometimes those faces get away from us. So whether you’re a tortured Hasid struggling with identity, a mother reckoning with the truth of her family’s past or a frazzled young woman claiming the stolen valor of false pregnancy, these tales of self-deception are endlessly fascinating....

With Valentine’s Day approaching, it’s as good a time as any to remember that love can make us do some pretty crazy shit sometimes. Whether gamely sweating it out alongside our more athletically gifted S.O.’s in some sort of esoteric exercise class or trudging out to some kind of public geek function as 50% of a humiliating couple’s cosplay scenario, the desire to please, placate or simply make our partners shut up already can propel even the most levelheaded and adventure-averse of us into some pretty uncomfortable situations....

If you’ve ever seen, heard or read interviews with Ava DuVernay about her work, it just may have occurred to you that it probably would be incredibly cool to hang out with her and her friends/collaborators and hear them share funny, sweet—sometimes embarrassing—stories about each other, their collaboration, their friendship and their work. On the first Directors Close-Up of 2015, DuVernay, actor David Oyelowo, editor Spencer Averick and moderator Robin Swicord did just that, reminiscing over their relationships and how their career paths intersected and led them all to be in the remarkable position of helping DuVernay succeed wildly at being “the one person who gets to make a movie about Dr....

The program is ongoing, and throughout the next couple of months we’ll be catching up with some of our 2016 Fellows to see how their projects are advancing, as well as recap what they learned during their May 2016 residency in Los Angeles. Director Amin Dora is one of the leading visual artists working in Lebanon today, creating a variety of film and commercial projects including Shankaboot, the first Arabic web drama series, for which he won an International Digital Emmy....

But! As the Cryptkeeper, Vaultkeeper and Old Witch have reminded us many times before, misery loves company. So rather than hanging on the edge of your seat anxiously peering through ragged knuckles at the current (but only temporary!) dumpster-fire state of your latest film project, instead console yourself with the fact that many of your Halloweentime horror favorites have had their own very bumpy rides. With Halloween weekend looming, we decided to dig into the streaming era’s bevy of behind-the-scenes horror-movie making-of’s—plus a couple critical surveys looking at how some marginalized communities have been served (or not!...

On January 6, Film Independent’s annual Spirit Award Nominee Brunch and grant award presentation returns to West Hollywood. And while free food, booze and celebrity schmoozing is all well and good, the real purpose of the brunch each year is to celebrate the many disparate and diverse storytellers who have worked so hard to make the past year in independent film so exceptional. And what would a Spirit Awards brunch be without actual Spirit Awards?...

Each October, the Film Independent Forum provides one such venue for acquiring these sorts of tools, featuring three hugely edifying days of filmmaker panels, keynote speeches, advance screenings, industry mixers, works-in-progress screenings, pitch workshops and more. Basically, a one-stop shop to arm yourself with everything you’ll need to make your dream project a reality regardless of where you are in the filmmaking process. Cool, no? The 2017 edition of the Film Independent Forum is coming soon, October 20-22, returning once again to the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles....

The evening began inside the ArcLight Cinemas Culver City with the screening of the visually rich and emotionally powerful Birth of a Nation teaser trailer. As the audience applause slowly died down, the panel’s moderator, LA Film Festival Director Stephanie Allain, introduced cast members Gabrielle Union and Aja Naomi King, followed by Nation’s writer, producer, director and lead, Nate Parker. We quickly learned that Parker grew up in Virginia just 42 miles East of where Nat Turner staged his historic 1831 slave rebellion....

Basic Survival “Some people actually get altitude sickness,” Jeeves warned. She advises getting there early and taking time to acclimate before you really need to do anything. “I get a B-12 shot beforehand,” she said, “and I’m putting Airborne and Emergen-C in my water every day, because you’re not getting any sleep. I’m living on that and coffee. I don’t think I actually eat.” Assembling a Team If you’re going with a film, you’ll want to have a sales agent, publicist and lawyer coming with you....

Scary, huh? Luckily, all currents necessarily give rise to an equal and opposing force—just ask anyone who’s ever swatted a tennis ball against a brick wall. And in the age of reality apathy, now more than ever there are nonfiction storytellers hugely eager to shed light on the objective realities of life in the year 2018. And to support those truth-tellers, there’s Film Independent’s Documentary Lab. Today, we’re proud to announce our nine new Documentary Lab Fellows, representing six different projects spanning the entire globe and covering a fascinating, wide-ranging selection of topics....

What’s the most exciting thing about being nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award? While I’m here I want to keep making films, and things like this let people know you’re here. What are you most looking forward to about the ceremony? The part when I get home that night and my mom asks me if I met Meryl Streep. Have you started sweating an acceptance speech yet? Like a psychedelic experience… just kind of sweat and go with it....

[SPOILERS AHEAD] At the end of Season One, things had seemingly taken a dark turn, with our protagonist attempting to take the life of his ex-wife’s boyfriend while also irretrievably damaging his relationship with his TV viewers. The beginning of Season Two finds Jeff Pickles dealing with his own very human flaws—but even while confronts his weaknesses, he stumbles into strengths and is beginning to reconnect with his young audience....

As always, the Filmmaker Forum seeks to inspire and empower filmmakers with the information, tools and connections to get their projects made and seen. You want topics? Oh, we’ve got topics. Financing. Production. Distribution. Narrative. Nonfiction. Episodic. Plus industry networking and pitching workshops. The official Forum schedule can be found here—though we can guarantee another great year of wide-ranging and inclusive conversation about the tricky (increasingly so!) business of independent film and the thrift, creativity and support needed to sustain a career in cinema....

Both actors said researching their real-life characters was no easy task. Very little is known of the real Gralton. What we do know was passed down through oral tradition. When screenwriter Paul Laverty began researching the story, he found that all official documentation of Gralton had mysteriously disappeared. The insinuation is that the government had tried to cover up the fact that they had illegally deported a man. Making things even more difficult for the actors was the fact Ken Loach intentionally kept them from seeing the script....

Maisel has been nominated for a whopping 20 statuettes up and down both sides of the production line. And while the show is certainly nothing without its crackling dialogue and crisp performances, it’s the exacting detail poured into every inch of the show’s sonic and visual world that truly brings it to life. So we were thrilled, on August 20, as Film Independent Presents welcomed Maisel’s Emmy-bound artisans to talk about the show’s craft....

MONIKA SKERBELIS, PART TWO After our discussion with indie film producer and film festival programming director Monika Skerbelis about navigating the larger film festival world back in February’s edition of Detail Oriented, we took some extra time to chat with Skerbelis about her role as the director of The American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival, a position she’s held since 2008. Launched in 1989, The American Pavilion is the primary hub of the American film community at Cannes each year, complete with its own student program, programming events, restaurant/bar and filmmaker networking....

As part of the program, each year teams of PI Fellows gather together to work on a series of original short films. Many of these films have gone on to acclaim at film festivals worldwide and have helped to launch the careers of Fellows including Andrew Ahn (Spa Night), Effie T. Brown (Real Women Have Curves), Justin Simien (Dear White People), Rhys Ernst and countless others. To celebrate Project Involve’s 25th anniversary, we’ll be revisiting some of our favorite PI shorts of yesteryear on Film Independent’s YouTube channel—something we’re calling “Project Involve Selects....