Oscilloscope
-
Exclusive Clip: A Sibling Showdown in Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)
Filmmaker is thrilled to share an exclusive clip of Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), which releases today in New York City via Oscilloscope. The debut feature from Bronx-bred filmmaker Joel Alfonso Vargas—who appeared on our 25 New Faces of Film list in 2024 on the strength of the short film version of the project—takes place during a sweltering summer in the borough, capturing the texture of daily live for its residence with a documentary-adjacent approach. Vargas cast local actors and shot guerilla-style all over the neighborhood, completing approximately 100 scenes in just 16 days. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 17, 2026 -
“Deception Was Inherent to Teacher Wang’s Work, and We Had to Figure Out How to Handle This from an Ethical Perspective”: Elizabeth Lo on Mistress Dispeller
Perhaps one of the strangest and most captivating docs of the year, Elizabeth Lo’s Mistress Dispeller centers on a middle-aged wife and husband, the latter of whom is having an affair that the former is desperate to end. Enter Wang Zhenxi, one of a growing number of China’s professional “mistress dispellers.” For a fee, Teacher Wang will orchestrate scenarios that allow her to get to know the man and his mistress in order to discern how she can best manipulate a breakup – one in which all parties hopefully emerge for the better. A series of staged deceptions that add […]
by Lauren Wissot on Oct 20, 2025 -
“The Pendulum Can Only Swing So Far Before the Industry Realizes That There is More to Film, and Life, Than Celebrities and Murderers”: Frances Henderson on Her Essay Doc, This Much We Know
“I think the reason we’ve never pinpointed the real beginning to this genre is because we’ve never agreed on what the genre even is. Do we read nonfiction in order to receive information, or do we read it to experience art? It’s not very clear sometimes… I am here in search of art.” — Jon D’Agata When I interviewed documentary filmmaker Frances Henderson for Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces list in 2014, she discussed the above quote from author Jon D’Agata, noting that it held pride of place on the moodboard that hung above her desk. ” I am very much […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 14, 2023 -
Night School Director: “Why I (Only) Make Films in the Midwest”
With Oscilloscope releasing his latest documentary, Night School, this Friday in New York at the IFC Center and June 23 at the Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles (with nationwide roll-out to follow), filmmaker Andrew Cohn posts this guest essay about his choice to make films largely in America’s heartland. Here he recounts his experience making his previous film, Medora, and how it made him question the motives and strategies many non-fiction filmmakers bring to their depiction of Midwestern subjects. Oscilloscope will donate a portion of all proceeds from ticket sales to educational initiatives at Goodwill Industries’ McClelland Scholars, the organization […]
by Andrew Cohn on Jun 7, 2017 -
Why Director Joel Potrykus is Releasing His New Movie as “Pay What You Wish”
Along with the debut of a brand new trailer (above) for Joel Potrykus’ The Alchemist Cookbook, distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories has announced that the film will be released via BitTorrent Now for pay-what-you-wish on October 7th. The Alchemist Cookbook is a portrait of a Sean, a young hermit in the woods who sets out to solve an old mystery, and loses his mind along the way. Starring Ty Hickson and Amari Cheatom, the film premiered at SXSW and screened at various other festivals including BAMcinemaFest and Fantasia. Potrykus, who previously directed Ape and Buzzard, recently penned an Op-Ed about why he’s a fan […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 20, 2016 -
Dan Berger on Why Oscilloscope is Selling Their 35mm Prints on Craigslist
A somewhat unsettling Craigslist ad made the rounds on Twitter on Wednesday night, offering up “indie film prints” for the grand total of $1. The dollar was a placeholder, but the offer was very much real: Oscilloscope was “cleaning (ware)house” and looking to sell 35mm prints of Wuthering Heights, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and a handful of others to the highest bidder. Though the post is now flagged for removal, I reached out to Oscilloscope’s Dan Berger about why the company was trying to find a new home for their own property. Immediately, he assured me that the future availability of […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Mar 13, 2015 -
From River of Grass to Living Los Sures: George Schmalz on Kickstarter’s New Curated Restoration Initiative
As part of a new restoration initiative, Kickstarter is partnering with various distributors, filmmakers and organizations to raise funds to preserve and proliferate significant and niche films on the verge of obsolescence. The first five projects to campaign through the site are River of Grass, Kelly Reichardt’s wonderful, underseen debut; a Kino Lorber selection of “Pioneers of African Cinema,” presented by DJ Spooky; the German exploitation film Bloody Friday; Living Los Sures, UnionDocs’ update on the 1984 documentary Los Sures; and the VHS ’90s horror flick, Jungle Trap. There are distribution plans in place for all of the films, should the necessary funds come through: Oscilloscope is planning a VOD, DVD and […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 11, 2015 -
Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher Picked Up by Oscilloscope
Our current crop of “25 New Faces” are a busy bunch (I recently wrote an update on their exploits), and the latest alum to make headlines is Hannah Fidell, whose debut feature A Teacher has just been picked up by Oscilloscope. The film — produced by another of 2012’s 25, Kim Sherman — tells the story of a 20-something teacher (the excellent Lindsay Burdge) who has an affair with one of her students. It premiered at Sundance last month, and will play at SXSW in March. In a press release announcing the acquisition, Oscilloscope’s David Laub and Dan Berger said, […]
by Nick Dawson on Feb 13, 2013 -
Andrea Arnold, Wuthering Heights
Occasionally a period piece comes along that feels neither like the gauzy, ignorantly rendered, idealized versions of the past churned out by the Hollywood of yesteryear nor like the product of our grim, cynical and corporatist postmodern times, the maddening ideological manifestations of which are usually filtered through the perspective of some stooge director. I’m about to tell you about one such film. As stark and unforgiving as her previous works, Andrea Arnold’s new film finds her pondering the aftermath of a mysterious, multi-pronged trauma for yet another soulful, alienated loner. That this shatteringly potent adaptation of Emily Brontë’s too-often-filmed […]
by Brandon Harris on Oct 4, 2012 -
TRAILER WATCH: “BROOKLYN BROTHERS BEAT THE BEST”
On September 21, almost exactly a year after its premiere at Toronto, writer/director/star Ryan O’Nan’s IFP Lab project Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best will be released by Oscilloscope Pictures. The quirky, crowdpleasing musical comedy — which has a strong supporting cast featuring Michael Weston, Arielle Kebbel, Andrew McCarthy, Jason Ritter, Wilmer Valderrama, Christopher McDonald and Melissa Leo — now has a trailer, which you can check out below.
by Nick Dawson on Aug 21, 2012
