I’m a midcareer filmmaker with a few features that have played at major international film festivals, including Sundance and Cannes, followed by modest distribution. So, you can imagine my shock when my third feature, Rogers Park, was programmed by… almost no festivals. Despite having what I thought was a track record, I found myself in the wonderful position of having made a no-star ensemble film that had no industry champions, no curatorial validation and no traction. After regrouping from a year of festival rejections, I had to make a decision. Should I throw in the towel and post my film […]
by Kyle Henry on Sep 17, 2018It used to be so simple: Release a movie in theaters and, several months later, it would come to your local video store. Nowadays, each and every film’s release pattern and chosen distribution platforms are—or, at least, should be—idiosyncratic, unique, and specifically tailored. “The first thing you have to ask yourself,” distribution consultant Michael Tuckman says, “is who is your audience, and work backwards from there to figure out what windowing you’re going to do.” If the target audience is a young demographic who spend most of their time on devices, then, according to The Orchard’s Paul Davidson, “a SVOD […]
by Anthony Kaufman on Jun 11, 2018A slightly belated posting here to recognize 25 New Face filmmaker Kyle Henry’s latest feature, the Chicago-set relationship drama Rogers Park, which is extended at Cinema Village through this coming Thursday, May 10. After theatrical openings in New York and L.A., the film has cemented a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Glenn Kenny writing in the New York Times, “The superb actors, given opportunities to go for broke, make each one count, and make the movie worth watching.” Henry has been in the independent trenches for nearly two decades, with features including the superb psychological drama Room and […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 5, 2018With thanks to the good folks at Kickstarter, today we debut our curated page on the crowdfunding platform. At Filmmaker Magazine on Kickstarter you’ll always find a half dozen or so projects that we believe deserve your support. These will be projects by filmmakers we support through the magazine or site (like, for example, those from our annual “25 New Faces” list), those whose work has impressed us in the past, or perhaps just those whose project descriptions are particularly compelling. And while film and video projects will, naturally, comprise the bulk of our recommendations, I hope to sprinkle in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 16, 2012I ran into filmmaker — and Filmmaker “25 New Face” — Kyle Henry at the American Pavilion in Cannes, and I was startled to learn that he was attending the festival… but skipping his screening. He offered to explain in a blog post. Your film gets into the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival, and you can’t stay for your screening… are you crazy? Well, that was my case this year. My film Fourplay: Tampa, a short that is part of the anthology-of-shorts feature Fourplay, got the magical golden ticket to one of the festival sections at Cannes this […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 23, 2011Last summer in L.A. the Sundance Institute presented their first-ever ShortsLab, a day-long workshop for short filmmakers. The success of the event has led the Institute to expand ShortsLab to three cities this year with the first being Chicago on May 7 (NYC will happen on July 9 and L.A. Aug. 6). The Chicago workshop will include seminars, screenings and panels that focus on story, production and distribution. There will also be a panel dedicated to short film programmers, as they’ll talk candidly about what films they’re looking for and give tips on how to get your short noticed. Some […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 12, 2011Saw back to back screenings in the Sundance “experimental” Frontier section to kick off my festival moviewatching this year. Frequently ignored by most industry, the Frontier section always contains a few real discoveries by filmmakers the fest tags as “experimental” but who will go on to make the mark in the indie scene. A few years ago J.T. Petty debuted his chillingly simple near-silent ghost story Soft for Digging in the section and last year Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation screened there as well. This year the Frontier “filmmaker to watch” may be Kyle Henry, whose Room is an excellently directed and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2005