Independent Films

Filmmaker Magazine

• How Politics Affects the Oscars, and Vice Versa January 27, 2026
  It’s only been five days since the Oscar nominations announcement, and campaigning for Phase 2 hasn’t kicked into gear quite yet. There have been a lot of other things to focus on: the final Park City Sundance Film Festival, where many 2027 Oscar contenders may debut (six features from last year’s festival earned Oscar noms […]
  Tyler Coates
• “These Guys Don’t Miss”: Padraic McKinley on Directing Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe in The Weight January 27, 2026
  When Padraic McKinley first received The Weight screenplay from producers Nathan and Simon Fields, he loved the atmospheric world it summoned forth. Original screenwriter Matthew Booi, along with Leo Scherman and Matthew Chapman, had created something special with this Western-adjacent Depression-era crime-thriller. But as a longtime editor across film and TV (Igby Goes Down, Dexter), […]
  Tomris Laffly
• “We Can Keep Living in a Glacial World”: Sara Dosa on Time and Water January 27, 2026
  A splendid yet elegiac homage to dying, receding, failing, yet magnificent glaciers, Sara Dosa’s Time and Water, a documentary produced with National Geographic and Sandbox Films, is awe-inspiring precisely because it makes you feel helpless to move. That’s what awe is, after all. The film makes use of a treasure trove of archival materials, some of […]
  Ritesh Mehta
• “Knowing Yourself Is a Big Part of Your Package as an Actor”: Astrid Rotenberry, Back To One, Episode 377 January 27, 2026
  Astrid Rotenberry has had roles on Law & Order SVU, The Four Seasons, and American Sports Story. Now she plays Catherine Kelly in the Netflix limited series His and Hers, and her performance is so authentic and affecting it runs the risk of being taken for granted. On this episode, she details what excited her about the role, and why […]
  Peter Rinaldi
• Sundance Quick Takes January 27, 2026
  While the East digs out from under feet of snow and ice, Park City is dry as a bone. Desiccated slopes encircling Main Street are gray and bare, devoid of powder or skiers. Meanwhile, Main Street, a pedestrian mall during the festival, is buzzier than ever, packed with Sundancers under sunny skies reveling at the […]
  David Leitner
• “What Is a Golf Course but the Gentrification of Land?”: Rafael Manuel on Filipiñana January 26, 2026
  In Filipiñana, tension often lives inside the image itself: a desiccated pine tree creaks against a bright blue sky; mangos left to rot on the branch. There is beauty here, but also decay. Rafael Manuel’s debut feature expands on his 2020 Berlinale-winning short (which is streamable courtesy of The Criterion Channel) to offer an extended […]
  Elissa Suh
• “A Lot of Disabled People Don’t Get to Take Big Risks”: Liz Sargent on Directing Her Sister in Take Me Home January 26, 2026
  Take Me Home is a film about a caregiver, and the spirit of caregiving infused the entire production. Writer-director Liz Sargent based the feature, her first, on her short of the same name, which premiered at Sundance in 2023. It stars Anna Sargent, her sister, as a woman with a cognitive disability who is the caregiver […]
  Ritesh Mehta
• “It’s Like Funny Ordinary People”: Jay Duplass on See You When I See You January 26, 2026
  Twenty three years have passed since Jay and Mark Duplass made a seven-minute short titled This is John for $3—yes, three dollars—that premiered in Sundance in 2003 and effectively launched their careers. This year, Jay (who recently directed the intimately sweet The Baltimorons) is back in Park City as a director with See You When […]
  Tomris Laffly
• “We Will Be Passing Out Little NOT AI Buttons to Our Audiences”: Valerie Veatch on Her Sundance-premiering Ghost in the Machine January 26, 2026
  Until now, the Silicon Valley hype cycle has defined the terms of the artificial-intelligence debate, with advocates predicting universal affluence and the end of all diseases while critics worry that computers will steal not only our jobs but our creative pursuits too. Valerie Veatch’s Ghost in the Machine proposes a different possibility altogether: that “AI,” if you […]
  Lauren Wissot
• “Fake Stuff Makes Me Feel Sick”: John Wilson on The History of Concrete January 24, 2026
  The History of Concrete, John Wilson’s first feature-length film, is far stranger and more compelling than the title suggests—and a perfect continuation of his oft-meandering, always philosophical practice. Yes, there are novel factoids about Ancient Rome, the removal of gum from city sidewalks and the oldest concrete road in America, but the plot often shifts […]
  Natalia Keogan