You have a killer idea. A great script. Actors or producers that love it. You get it budgeted… then get realistic and drop that number down to something more reasonable. You open an LLC, a bank account, and now you own 100% of nothing but a great idea. If you have representation, you send out your materials to potential financiers in hopes that just one of them tells you an astounding, “Yes!”. But as an emerging feature filmmaker, the odds are not in your favor, especially in an industry that’s relying more and more on pre-vetted IP, in-house development and […]

Since the passing in January of Irwin Young, chief mensch at New York’s fabled DuArt Film Lab, there has been an outpouring of tributes and reminiscences, including a packed memorial at Lincoln Center in May. But no tribute has been more on point than “The Process: A Tribute to Robert and Irwin Young,” the Metrograph’s recent 24-film series dedicated to Irwin, the lab’s owner, and older brother, director Robert M. “Bob” Young, for the epic contributions they jointly made to the American indie film scene from the 1960s through the 1990s. For the big screen is precisely where the Young […]

The Doc Society Climate Story Fund announced today nine new creative projects from around the globe that will receive a combined $645,000 in grants, with each work demonstrating a concerted effort to advance climate justice and protect biodiversity.  This is the second cohort to receive the Climate Story Fund, which supports work from a wide array of storytelling mediums, including musical dramas, podcasts and documentaries. The fund prioritizes storytellers from underrepresented communities on the front lines of the global climate crisis, with the intent of providing much-needed support from production to impact campaigns. There is special emphasis on projects that […]

The Lynn Shelton “Of a Certain Age” Grant is now accepting applications. The unrestricted $25,000 cash grant will be offered to a woman, non-binary or trans filmmaker 39 years or older who has not yet helmed a narrative feature.  The grant was established by Northwest Film Forum alongside Duplass Brothers Productions in 2020 after Lynn Shelton’s untimely passing. Some of the late, Seattle-based director’s films include We Go Way Back (her 2006 debut feature), Humpday (2009), Laggies (2014) and Sword of Trust (2019). Shelton was inspired to make her first film at age 39 after learning that French auteur Claire […]

I am a New Orleans based writer-director who is putting together a follow-up feature to my film Laundry Day. In 2021 I attached executive producer Corky Kessler and raised money to attend Sundance for the first time (I know, I know… overdue) with him as my defacto host. Of course, Sundance was canceled at the last minute, and I lost a big chunk of the money and what I thought was any hope of rubbing elbows with people who can help my new project, Drinking Music, get made at a substantial budget (my first seven-figure film). A few months later […]

Color Congress, “the newly formed documentary intermediary organization,” announced today $1.35 million in two-year unrestricted grants to small-budgeted majority people of color and POC-led doc organizations across the U.S. The 17 grantees, selected from a pool of 120 applying organizations, are ones serving historically marginalized communities, have budgets under $300,000 and operate outside national media hubs. The inaugural grants range in amounts from $45,000 to $90,000. “Many of these organizations offer a creative home for documentary filmmakers of color that may not otherwise be served, while others ensure there are viable distribution pathways for the films that are produced,” explains […]