Independent Films

Filmmaker Magazine

• “We Just Love This Beautiful Outsider Art Form”: Dennis Cooper and Zac Farley on Home Haunts and “Room Temperature” January 16, 2026
  Making an appearance on DC’s, the blog of author Dennis Cooper, each October are haunted houses and their amateur offspring, “home haunts,” the Halloween home makeovers that with varying degrees of imagination turn suburban dwellings into highly personal expressions of horror . For Cooper, the acclaimed author of works such as Closer, Frisk, God, Jr., […]
  Scott Macaulay
• Why Hedda, Roofman, and F1 Could Still Crash the Oscar Party January 16, 2026
  Today is the last day of Oscar nominations voting, which brings an end to “phase one” of campaigning. With the noms being announced next Thursday, January 22—at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m. PT—there will be barely enough time to relax before things kick into full gear once again. Now, I can’t imagine being an […]
  Tyler Coates
• Herzog and Jarecki Anchor the 2026 Big Sky Documentary Film Fest January 14, 2026
  The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival announces the lineup for its 23rd annual incarnation today, and Filmmaker has an exclusive early look at the 46 features and 69 short and mini docs slated for inclusion. Montana’s largest annual cinematic event will roar back to life in Missoula from February 13 through 22, and this year’s […]
  Mike Hogan
• “Real True Empowerment Is Your Own Prep”: Carolyn Michelle, Back To One, Episode 375 January 13, 2026
  Carolyn Michelle is an actress, producer, educator, and entrepreneur. Her credits include: Brilliant Minds, And Just Like That, The Chi, Russian Doll, House of Cards, and the role of Vanessa, opposite Kathleen Chalfant’s Ruth, in Sarah Friedland’s celebrated indie film Familiar Touch. On this episode, she talks about her deep roots with that project, and […]
  Peter Rinaldi
• The Golden Globes Gave Three Serious Films a Big Oscar Boost January 12, 2026
  If awards season is useful for anything, it’s to provide a distraction. Bombarded as we are by bleak headlines, there’s something soothing about watching a lot of very famous people collect trophies and crack jokes for a few hours. At the 83rd Annual Golden Globes, host Nikki Glaser set the tone for a fun celebration. […]
  Tyler Coates
• Reflections on Independent Film and 33 Years of Filmmaker January 9, 2026
  In 2017, for the 25th anniversary of Filmmaker, we commissioned a radical redesign and also initiated a new upfront section: Reflections. For four issues we published pieces looking back at the history of the magazine as well as ones that meditated anew on its enduring concerns, such as struggles of early career filmmakers, the changing […]
  Scott Macaulay
• Everything is Fine (Maybe?) January 9, 2026
  As I devoted more time and energy to the Filmmaker newsletter throughout the last decade-plus, I’d often find myself in some form of dialogue with producer, strategist and consultant Brian Newman. His invaluable Sub-genre newsletter arrives on Thursdays (now, biweekly), mine on Fridays, and, like me, he’ll often comment on the production and distribution challenges […]
  Brian Newman
• Big Art/Little Debt/Together January 9, 2026
  I first met producer, director and non-profit executive Esther Robinson in the early aughts, when she was Film/Video Program Director at Creative Capital, a still invaluable organization that not only funds bold work but helps artists in their paths towards overall sustainability. Later, in 2006, I selected her for our 25 New Faces while she […]
  Esther B. Robinson
• Guy Maddin and David C. Roberts Discuss “Song of My City,” City Symphonies and the “Vivisection” of Cinema January 8, 2026
  Steam pouring from manhole covers, the neon-lights of 42nd street seen through rain-streaked taxicab windows, phalanxes of cops spied from tenement rooftops as they sweep a city block — David C. Roberts’s Song of My City distills the visual rushes of a score of 1970s and early ’80s New York City-set film classics into a […]
  Filmmaker Staff
• DP Michael Bauman on “One Battle After Another” January 8, 2026
  For the first time since 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love, Paul Thomas Anderson has made a movie with a contemporary setting. To do so, he used a film format dormant for the last half century. Anderson’s One Battle After Another continues a resurgence of VistaVision that now includes The Brutalist and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and Bugonia. […]
  Matt Mulcahey