Independent Films

Filmmaker Magazine

• “Everybody Passed on It”: Sean Wang on Dìdi July 26, 2024
  If having your first feature premiere at the Sundance Film Festival is an accomplishment, being nominated for an Academy Award the same week is pretty much unheard of. Nonetheless, that’s what writer-director Sean Wang experienced last January when his coming-of-age narrative feature, Dìdi, premiered to glowing reviews (and a distribution deal with Focus Features) while […]
  Erik Luers
• Trailer Watch: Zach Clark’s The Becomers July 23, 2024
  At Filmmaker we’ve long been a fan of Zach Clark, director of such witty and genre (and genre-adjacent) work as Little Sister, Vacation! and White Reindeer. He always brings real style and subversive smarts to his pictures, which often apply ingenious tonal twists to familiar situations and set-ups. For his latest, The Becomers, Clark fuses […]
  Scott Macaulay
• Ten Takeaways from Hundreds of Beavers‘ Success July 23, 2024
  Each Friday I send out a free email newsletter with an original Editor’s Letter along with viewing recommendations and festival deadlines. The Editor’s Letter is usually not reposted here on this site. As a way of encouraging sign-ups — you can join for free here — I’m posting here a slightly edited version of last […]
  Scott Macaulay
• “There’s Never Any Trust Until You Just Do It”: Jimmy Tatro, Back To One, Episode 301 July 23, 2024
  Jimmy Tatro is an actor, director, writer, and comedian best known for the popular YouTube channel he created over a decade ago, LifeAccordingToJimmy. His career expanded into the mainstream with roles in movies like 22 Jump Street and the Netflix series American Vandal, all while he continued to expand the content on his channel. His […]
  Peter Rinaldi
• Three Weeks in July: Greg Kwedar on Sing Sing July 18, 2024
  The first and best reason to see Sing Sing, the new feature from Transpecos director Greg Kwedar, is for the lead performance of Colman Domingo. One year after receiving an Academy Award nomination for his title role in Rustin, Domingo is even better as John “Divine G” Whitfield, a wrongfully incarcerated inmate of Sing Sing […]
  Erik Luers
• David Lynch on (Just) Making the Day July 17, 2024
  “Did you make the day?” That’s the first question financiers and production execs will ask after a first day — or, really, any day — of shooting. “Making the day” means completing all the scenes on the call sheet so that the production isn’t falling behind, something that can led to dropped scenes, budget overruns […]
  Scott Macaulay
• Watch: Rick Alverson’s Video for Alan Sparhawk’s Can U Hear July 17, 2024
  With White Rose, My God, a new album from Alan Sparhawk — his first since the passing of Mimi Parker, his partner in the band Low — scheduled to appear in September, the singer/songwriter has released its first single with a music video directed by independent filmmaker Rick Alverson (The Mountain). Alverson has pixellated Sparhawk’s […]
  Scott Macaulay
• “The Hardest Thing Is To Get Out of Your Own Way”: Lady In The Lake‘s Y’lan Noel, Back To One, Episode 300 July 16, 2024
  Y’lan Noel played Daniel in the HBO series Insecure starred in The First Purge, and now he plays Officer Platt in Lady in The Lake, Alma Har’el’s eagerly anticipated new series for Apple TV+ that drops on July 19th. On this episode, he discusses his unique approach to the work, which starts with, and centers […]
  Scott Macaulay
• Navigating the Feedback Maze: How Greenlight Coverage Transformed My Screenwriting Journey (Sponsored Post) July 16, 2024
  Screenwriters know the feeling all too well: you complete a draft of your screenplay (yay!), now you need someone to read it (boo!). It’s a rollercoaster. Because let’s face it, your friends are tired, and how objective are they going to be, really? You’re saving your industry contracts for a later draft, and how detailed […]
  Alyssa Rivera
• “I Could Do a Dynamite Directors Cut, Because I Know Where All the Best Stuff is, But That Would Defeat the Whole Purpose of the Project”: Gary Hustwit on ENO July 12, 2024
  What used to be known, literally, as “the cutting room floor,” now exists as a digital bin, an assortment of deleted scenes, unused (and in today’s mode of industrial documentary production, perhaps even unviewed) footage — material that, through its absence, haunts any finished audiovisual work. Often when this material is revealed, on a Blu-ray […]
  Scott Macaulay