In April, the collapse of Participant Media sent shockwaves through the film industry. How could a 20-year-old company—with box office hits such as An Inconvenient Truth and The Help and 21 Oscars, including two Best Picture winners (Spotlight, Green Book)—close its doors without warning? But earlier that same month, another nearly two-decade-old indie film company made a surprising move that offers potential answers to what happened, how the film industry is changing and how well-meaning financiers are reacting to it. Cinereach, a longstanding nonprofit that has supported hundreds of indie films through grants, financing and mentorship, announced a major shift […]
by Anthony Kaufman on Jun 27, 2024Cinereach, the not-for-profit film support and production company, is offering moviegoers who see at least two of the four Cinereach-supported pictures in theaters this month special, one-of-a-kind artist gifts. The films — all of which are very good, by the way — are Matt Wolf’s Teenage, Tom Gilroy’s The Cold Lands, Eliza Hittman’s It Felt Like Love and Daniel Carbone’s Hide Your Smiling Faces. (The first two are at the IFC Center in New York now; It Felt Like Love opens next week and Hide Your Smiling Faces on the 28th). Here is info from Cinereach: Why? Indie releases unite! […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 14, 2014Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, announced today that the Institute’s Artist Services program – which provides Institute artists with exclusive opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing and financing solutions for their work –has expanded to include selected films supported by one foundation and five nonprofit organizations. Additionally, these organizations will join with Sundance Institute in continuing to shape the program and the services it offers. The Bertha Foundation, BRITDOC, Cinereach, Film Independent, the Independent Filmmaker Project and the San Francisco Film Society will each select films that they have supported to receive access to best-in-class digital distribution arrangements that […]
by Billy Brennan on Jan 18, 2013After collaborating with Cinereach for many years on films including Benh Zeitlin’s four time Academy Award-nominated film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Joshua Marston’s The Forgiveness of Blood, and Tom Gilroy’s The Cold Lands (premiering at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival), Paul Mezey has signed on as Producer in Residence at the not-for-profit production company and foundation. Mezey will support development, production and distribution of Cinereach’s films, as well as being involved in the organization’s grant-making activities and other key initiatives. Mezey is the founder of Journeyman Pictures, through which he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and award-winning […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 17, 2013Cinereach announced today that it has awarded over $500,000 in grants to 22 feature-length film projects that applied for support in 2012. More than 2,000 applications were submitted, from filmmakers based in upwards of 100 countries. The 22 grantees in this round are comprised of twelve non-fiction films, seven fiction films, and three hybrids. The fourteen new grantees range from the early development stages to late post-production. The renewed support went primarily towards the completion of prior grantees’ films, including Cutie and the Boxer, God Loves Uganda and Narco Cultura, which will premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and […]
by Billy Brennan on Jan 16, 2013Like most working independent film producers, I’ve pitched my projects to more potential financiers than I can remember. I’m always relieved when they’re seasoned film investors because then I can focus on the creative aspects of the project, the production and distribution plan, and the recoupment structure. When I pitch to someone who hasn’t invested in film before, most of my time is spent explaining how film investment works, the typical life cycle of a film, and the current industry landscape (often with historical context!). I genuinely love educating people about “how film works.” It’s great to shatter the US Weekly version of the […]
by Mynette Louie on Aug 20, 2012(Beasts of the Southern Wild world premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Narrative Grand Jury Prize, as well as Best Cinematography for Ben Richardson. It also won the Camera d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. It is being distributed by Fox Searchlight and opened theatrically on June 27, 2012. Visit the film’s official website—as well as the virtual home base of the Court 13 collective—to learn more.) I want to make this immediately, abundantly clear. Perhaps more than any other review I’ve ever written, this one is coming from the pained perspective of a […]
by Michael Tully on Jun 28, 2012Most of the time when I come across interesting articles or video on the web I clip them to my Evernote reader and check them out later on my Blackberry or iPad. Here, then, are a few things I’ve clipped that might interest you too. From CNN Money: “One in eight to cut cable and satellite TV in 2010.” What are the implications for online content creators? In Spring 2008 I wrote about Alix Lambert’s Crime book for Filmmaker. (The piece is not online, but you can check it out on her site.) Here, at The Graveyard Shift, she discusses […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 2, 2010