Filmmaker‘s Top Ten New Posts of 2021

If you’re not a daily visitor to Filmmaker, reading this piece, our annual “top ten,” will be a process of discovery as you can scan through the articles that received our highest traffic in 2021. But, increasingly, compiling this article is a discovery process for us as many of its entries are simply not ones we would have guessed. There are articles that kick up conversation across Twitter, or that I receive emails and calls about, and then there are quiet traffic-getters that only surface when the Google Analytics button is hit. The top post here is no surprise, as…  Read more

From the Filmmaker Newsletter: Spending Time with Raúl Ruiz and Caveh Zahedi

Each week I write a free Filmmaker newsletter that’s normally not published on this site. Letters range from links and recommendations to longer-form pieces and article first passes. Here’s a newsletter that was sent out June 18 that received a lot of response. With Caveh Zahedi finishing his Kickstarter campaign with a 24-hour telethon, and Jaime Grijalba’s Ruiz Diaries continuing, I thought I’d post it here. You can subscribe to the Filmmaker newsletter at the link. — SM I’ve recently been spending time each day with Raúl Ruiz and Caveh Zahedi. Not literally, of course — Raúl died in 2011,…  Read more

Filmmaker‘s 20 Most Popular New Posts of 2020

To rhyme with the year, I’ve expanded this year’s roundup of our most popular posts, as determined by Google Analytics, from 10 to 20. It’s full of both expected entries — our 25 New Faces scores highly every year — as well as a few surprises. It also shows the dominance of TV and streaming, or perhaps the ’20 decline in theatrical exhibition. So many of the articles on this list — which aren’t “a best of the year,” although many are indeed that — are the ones that intersected best with search analytics, caught viral waves, or rode along…  Read more

Filmmaker Returns to Print, Announces 2020 Subscription Sale

I’m very happy to announce that Filmmaker will return to print for our Fall issue, which will reach subscribers — new and continued — in late October. Filmmaker‘s Winter, 2020 issue will be published in January to coincide with IFP’s Gotham Awards. Facing the uncertainty of the coronavirus shutdowns in the Spring, and with bookstores closing throughout the country, Filmmaker published its Summer issue in a special, redesigned PDF format. But now we’re thrilled that, with the support of our publisher, IFP, and our advertisers, we’ll be back with a printed edition next month. The Fall, 2020 issue Filmmaker will also be…  Read more

Filmmaker’s Summer 2020 Issue is Online and Available for Purchase

As previously announced, Filmmaker‘s Summer 2020 issue is being published as a PDF, and it’s now online and available for single-issue purchase. It’s our largest page-count ever (244 pages!), and our designers, Caspar Newbolt and Charlotte Gosch, tweaked the whole design to make it a beautiful and comfortable experience on both a tablet and a laptop in either portrait or landscape view. For the first time, we’ve also enabled the issue to be purchased individually as a PDF for $5.95, and you can do that by clicking here or on the button below using PayPal or your credit card. On…  Read more

Filmmaker is an advertiser-supported publication, and we are grateful to our Summer issue advertisers for advertising in our current issue. Thanks to all the companies below, and please consider clicking on their links below and learning about their current products, projects and initiatives. FX Networks, AKA Jane Doe HBO, For Your Consideration SAGindie Newsletter Metropolitan Post Virginia Film Office Cherokee Nation (OSIYO TV) Fairleigh Dickenson University Vermont College of Fine Arts Columbia University School of the Arts Emerson College  LA Film School Johns Hopkins University Temple University Seven Seas (Rights Workshop) Warner Archive City of San Antonio

We’ve been wanting to publish this news regarding Filmmaker‘s Summer, 2020 issue for the last week, but we haven’t wanted to take space in your feeds while energies and attention have needed to be directed towards protests and the Black Lives Matter movement. But because our publication date is approaching, we are publishing this today. Dear Reader, I’m writing with news about Filmmaker’s Summer, 2020 issue as well as, for print subscribers, your subscription. For reasons I will detail here, we’ve decided to make Filmmaker’s summer issue a PDF edition. Of course, the issue will be available to all subscribers…  Read more

Each Friday, Filmmaker sends out a free newsletter containing an original Editor’s Letter as well as news of film openings, events, etc. (the latter mostly streaming and online, these days). The Editor’s Letters usually aren’t posted online, but here’s last week’s, which deals with the uncertainty around obtaining production insurance in this pandemic environment. It’s been passed around quite a bit, so I’m posting it here for easier reference. If you’d like to receive the Filmmaker newsletter, you can subscribe for free here. — SM “It’s what we call ‘a hard market,’” said the insurance broker on the phone. I didn’t need…  Read more

Each Friday, Filmmaker sends out a free newsletter containing an original Editor’s Letter as well as news of film openings, events, etc. (the latter mostly streaming and online, these days). The Editor’s Letters usually aren’t posted online, but here’s the April 17 edition, which links to a Deadline piece and considers the question everyone in film production is asking at the moment. If you’d like to receive the Filmmaker newsletter, you can subscribe for free here. — SM When do we all go back to work? While provisional answers to this question are suggested every day in the newspapers and…  Read more

Almodovar’s Lockdown, J.G. Ballard’s World, Aphex Twin, Hal Willner and Spin-Off Podcasts: 4/8/2020 Links

Are you looking for a trusted, socially-distanced source to provide you with semi-regular cultural recommendation links during this time of pandemic? Okay, well, I’m not really either. My inbox too is full of check-ins and missives from journalists and curators seeking to maintain a digital relationship by supplying Netflix watchlists and the like during this awful interregnum. So consider these posts as much an activity for me as you as I revive this column by highlighting a few things that may provide some degree of interest, empathy or wisdom. Some things to shift your attention away from the cable news…  Read more