Learning from your producer colleagues — that’s one of the benefits of attending the Cannes Film Festival and Market. Whether you are premiering a film, hustling a film, or just watching movies, the experience of encountering at multiple parties fellow filmmakers makes Cannes a great place to glean tips on your practice by observing how others are getting it done. In addition to watching movies, this year at Cannes I moderated morning meetings at the Producers Network, of which IFP is a sponsoring partner. I also moderated the “American Producers in Cannes” panel at the American Pavilion and spoke with […]
With all the discussion about the future of Kickstarter in recent weeks, it may be appropriate that a film that began its campaign at the beginning of the crowdfunding movement is finally coming out this Saturday. The Cosmonaut — a Spanish-made English-language film directed by Nicolás Alcalá and produced by Carola Rodriguez and Bruno Teixidor — raised over €300,000 from 5,000 contributors. It was the first crowdfunded film in Spain and helped pave the way for the foundation of Lánzanos, Spain’s Kickstarter equivalent. The Cosmonaut will be available to watch for free on Saturday on the film’s website; the DVD, theatrical […]
Call me crazy, but I have a feeling that I am sitting on a niche documentary goldmine. It’s titled Nuts: The Best Damn Fans In The Land. It will be about Buckeye Nation, which is the cultish fandom of The Ohio State University. I’ve never been more certain of a project’s potential success than this one. However, my past attempts at trying to get it funded tell a much different story. For almost a decade I failed to obtain funding for this golden project. Then a miracle happened, which I will get to in a moment. Buckeye Nation is the […]
Sumptuous and evocative, Jared Moshe’s Dead Man’s Burden is the rarest of species in specialty film, a Western. More importantly, it is a fine addition to the genre, a complex meditation on the wages of sin and the burdens of family, a chamber drama with more than a hint of noir. Set during the years after the Civil War in and around a rural New Mexican ranch, the film initially focuses on a young couple, Martha (Clare Bowen) and Heck (David Call). They plan to sell the ranch after the death of her father, a struggling farmer, and use the money […]
What hath Veronica Mars wrought? When Kickstarter began, it was a place for projects that couldn’t find their money elsewhere. Projects that didn’t fit into easy categories. Projects from people without access to typical funding sources. Over the years, it’s morphed into many other things, including a pre-sale marketplace for new tech gizmos. The latest is a Money Guy Free Zone for Hollywood names. First, Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas turned to Kickstarter to fund what the owner of its IP, Warner Bros, would not. (Aiming for $2 million he raised $5 million). Now, Garden State director Zach Braff is […]
We recently ran a series of articles on the filmmakers shortlisted for the San Francisco Film Society’s Kenneth Rainin Foundation grants, and the eight projects which were chosen to receive support were as follows: Jonas Carpignano, writer/director — A Chjana — $45,000 for preproduction Grainger David, writer/director — Nocturne (working title) — $35,000 for screenwriting Ian Hendrie and Jyson McLean, co-writers/directors/producers — Mercy Road — $40,000 for development Maryam Keshavarz and Paolo Marinou-Blanco, cowriters — The Last Harem — $35,000 for screenwriting Richard Levien, writer/director and Chad Burris, producer — La Migra — $20,000 for development Tommy Oliver, writer/director/producer — […]
“Looking stupid is more feared than losing money.” That’s one of several truths contained in a blog post by Chris Jones titled, “Who Will Finance Your Film and Why.” When it comes to independent film, where the often lack of upfront distribution makes financial modeling difficult, equity fundraising is more art than science. Many articles that purport to tell you how to raise money ultimately don’t. But Jones’ post is a good one; indeed, I pretty much agree with everything he writes. Like about looking stupid. It sounds crazy but it’s true. Looking stupid is feared more than loosing money. […]
Here’s a list to bookmark: the POV for Filmmakers site has handy, spreadsheet-style lists of funding sources for documentary, new media and web films. From the Alter Cine Foundation to World View, the site offers links and one-paragraph summaries of the organization’s mission and funding range. Additional sections of the site provide links to engagement strategists — individuals and companies who can work on films’ outreach campaigns — as well as film festivals and the various entry points to PBS.
In the Fall of 2011, filmmaker Ryan Koo — featured along with then-partner Zachary Lieberman on our 2008 “25 New Faces” — announced his debut feature, Man-child. Embarking on an ambitious Kickstarter campaign, Koo leveraged not only the community he had been building via his excellent website, No Film School, but also his project’s selection for the IFP and Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Visions program. The campaign was a success, raising $125,100, and, as he’s moved his story of youth basketball forward, Koo has been, essentially, open-sourcing his progress, giving advice on not only social-media fundraising but screenplay […]
The San Francisco Film Society does a fine job supporting emerging talent through their Filmmaker360 program, and most notably the Kenneth Rainin Foundation grants. For success stories, you don’t have to look far: Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12, which was a recent KRF grant winner, just won SXSW, and the Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild received multiple grants from Filmmaker360. (Cretton was recently profiled by the SFFS, which you can view here.) The latest group of KRF finalists have now been announced, and it includes Jonas Carpignano for his feature version of A Chjana, the stunning short that last year […]