Editor's Note

A short newsletter this week. We're doing what we do every year at this time: putting together our Winter issue, which comes out at Sundance, but has to ship to the printer before the New Year. We're used to this schedule, having done it for years, but it's always a crunch. We can be as organized as we want, but dealing with the effects of the holidays on other people, like our writers and interview subjects, can be tough. A writer asked me for advice on how to get the people he needed quotes from to respond to him during this holiday week. I'm afraid I didn't have anything more to suggest than polite persistence.



The next issue has a lot in it about distribution. Anthony Kaufman brings back his "Hits and Misses" feature, detailing the distribution paths of eight or so Sundance pictures. Alicia Van Couvering explores the mysteries of VOD reporting. We have an inspirational first-person story from two filmmakers who created their own sustainable distribution model that will carry them into the years ahead. And I'm excited by our cover story, which I won't say too much about. Except: after years of preaching certain things in the magazine it's nice to be able to put our money where our mouth is.



By the way, we're in the midst of our annual holiday sale, and if you subscribe now you'll get this issue in the mail mid-January. If you are looking for other gifts for filmmaker friends, check out this list from No Film School. (And thanks, NFS guys, for putting us on it.) Our sale is a once-a-year thing and ends December 31.



Also, did you know we have an iPad edition now?



Here's a link I've been meaning to write a blog post about but haven't yet. You don't have to be an Apple fan to get something from this article by Brightcove Founder Jeremy Allaire titled "All I Want for Christmas is My Apple TV." By outlining what he expects that eventual device to do, he gets us thinking about what we as independent filmmakers will have to do to harness its potential.



Speaking of distribution, I like this post by filmmaker Oakley Anderson-Moore about things she learned at the IFP Distribution Labs. And Jon Reiss's about the IFP's PMD Lab.



Finally, this is the last newsletter before the holidays, so I'd like to wish all of you happy and safe ones. I really appreciate your readership and the fact that we're all in this community together. I think 2013 is going to be a fascinating year, and I can't wait to see what you will be doing in it.



See you next week.



Best,
Scott Macaulay
Editor

Upcoming at IFP

IFP's Holiday Membership Deal - See 35+ of the Year's Best Films for Only $80!

Through January 20th, use discount code SPRT13 at www.ifp.org to get 20% off a one-year Individual Membership to the Independent Filmmaker Project, the nation's oldest and largest community of independent storytellers. Coming this January, IFP will host its annual Spirit Award screenings in New York City, giving members a chance to see 35+ of the year's most buzzed about independent films (including Beasts of the Southern Wild, Silver Linings Playbook, Moonrise Kingdom, Bernie, How to Survive a Plague, Amour, and many, many more). And you'll also get year-round access to exclusive preview screenings, networking events, educational panels, affordable health care, a print subscription to Filmmaker Magazine, and many more great benefits. To join IFP today and learn more, go here.

New In Theaters

Zero Dark Thirty

Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty is an epic account of the decade-long search for Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. The film follows both military and intelligence officers as they embark on one of the most obsessive and important manhunts in U.S. history. Bigelow reunites with screenwriter Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) for what is a brilliantly crafted procedural and one of the greatest cinematic achievements of the year. Zero Dark Thirty stars Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Edgar Ramirez, Mark Strong and Kyle Chandler among others.

Amour

Michael Haneke's Amour follows Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), an elderly couple living in Paris. The couple's enduring relationship is put to the ultimate test when Anne is paralyzed by a near-fatal stroke. Winner of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Amour finds writer-director Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon) departing from his usually intense, psychologically disturbing fare in favor of an intimate, touching exploration of love and death.

On The Road

Walter Salles' On The Road follows Sal Paradise (Sam Riley), a New York-based writer who undergoes a life-changing journey after encountering the free-spirited Dean Moriarty (Garret Hedlund) and his wife Marylou (Kristen Stewart). The three hit the road together, exploring the American frontier and each other. Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) finally brings Jack Kerouac's classic novel to the big screen after several failed attempts, including one by the novelist himself (in which he wished to star alongside Marlon Brando). On The Road also stars Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Amy Adams.

This Week on Filmmaker

This week on the blog, Amy Berg discusses West of Memphis (pictured left), Sundance announces its selections for the 2013 Screenwriters Labs, Nick Dawson shares the trailer for Pablo Larrain's No and Ariston Anderson recaps the 2012 Dubai International Film Festival.

To read more, click here.

Newest Web Article

Baltasar Kormakur on The Deep

By Nick Dawson

Since making his transition from actor to writer/director in 2000 with the raucous comedy 101 Reykjavik, Baltasar Kormakur has rapidly established himself as one of the most gifted and versatile European filmmakers. The Icelandic multi-hyphenate has moved with seeming ease from grand family dramas (The Sea) to gritty police procedurals (Jar City) and poignant comedies (White Night Wedding), while also turning out English-language indie thrillers such as 2005′s A Little Trip to Heaven (starring Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles and Jeremy Renner) and the 2010′s Inhale, with Diane Kruger, Dermot Mulroney and Sam Shepard.

Though Kormakur had arguably the biggest film of his career this year with Contraband - the Mark Wahlberg thriller based on 2008′s Reykjavik-Rotterdam, which Kormákur both produced and starred in - he has not abandoned his native cinema in order to focus solely on the lure of Hollywood. At this fall's Toronto International Film Festival, Kormakur debuted his eighth feature as a director, The Deep, based on the real-life story of Gulli (the excellently understated Olafur Darri Olafsson), a fisherman who defied science by surviving after his boat was sunk far out at sea, swimming for hours on end through Arctic waters before reaching land.

Read more

Festival Deadlines

Capital City Film Festival
Late Deadline: December 21
WAB Extended Deadline: January 4
Last Chance Deadline: January 18
Festival Dates: April 11 - 14

Newport Beach Film Festival
Regular Deadline: December 21
Late Deadline: December 31
Late Deadline: January 18
WAB Deadline: January 25
Festival Dates: April 25 - May 2

Tribeca Film Festival
WAB Deadline: December 28
Festival Dates: April 17 - 28