Narrative Lab Deadline Extended to April 2!

IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs is the only program in the country that supports emerging independent filmmakers with projects in post-production through the completion, marketing and distribution of their first feature film.

This free, year-long mentoring fellowship supports ten narrative projects each year, providing them with the technical, creative and strategic tools necessary to launch their films – and their careers.

If you're a first-time narrative feature director with a project in assembly, rough or fine cut, this is the program to help you get your film into shape.

Beginning with the five-day intensive in New York (June 7-11), selected projects gain editorial feedback, assess strategic partnerships & marketing opportunities, and evaluate their options for maximizing the reach of their film via festivals, traditional theatrical roll-outs or through innovative, DIY distribution methods. Filmmakers also meet with cutting-edge technologists to build their brands, as well as explore the myriad of modern web and promotional tools necessary to build engaged audiences for their projects.

The year following the Narrative Lab includes continued mentorship, collaborating on a distribution strategy specific to your film, and participation in IFP's Independent Film Week: Emerging Narrative program.

Past Narrative Lab Alumni have premiered at Slamdance (The Guatemalan Handshake; The New Year Parade), Sundance (The Imperialists Are Still Alive!; Half-Life), SXSW (Jumping Off Bridges; Older Than America; Rainbow Around the Sun; Sorry, Thanks; St. Nick; The Wedding Bros.; Woodpecker), Toronto (The Real Shaolin), and Venice (Zero Bridge).

Deadline for Narrative works-in-progress just extended to April 2!
More info and applications at http://Labs.ifp.org

Watch IFP's SCRIPT TO SCREEN CONFERENCE this weekend on UStream!

In a historic first for IFP, we will be streaming 6 out of the 11 panels of this weekend's SCRIPT TO SCREEN CONFERENCE on our Ustream.tv Channel here or in the middle of our homepage.

So even if you're away from the city, you can still see Terry George (HOTEL RWANDA), Steve Bodow (THE DAILY SHOW), Lena Dunham (TINY FURNITURE) and numerous others talk about making a career in independent film.

The streamed panels will be:
SATURDAY, MARCH 20th

Networking & Notice Workshops, Contests & Competitions | 11-12 PM
Moderated by Rachel Chanoff, SUNDANCE SCREENWRITERS' LAB
Featuring Gordy Hoffman, BLUECAT SCREENWRITING COMPETITION; Tamir Muhammad, Director, TRIBECA ALL ACCESS; David Nugent, Director of Programming, HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL; and Paul Rachman, Co-Founder, SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

Conversation With Steve Bodow, Head Writer, THE DAILY SHOW | 12-1 PM
Moderated by Jason Guerrasio, Managing Editor, FILMMAKER MAGAZINE

Double Duty: Directing Your Own Script | 3:30-4:30 PM
Moderated by Brandon Harris, Contributing Editor, FILMMAKER MAGAZINE

Featuring Debra Granick, DOWN TO THE BONE, WINTER'S BONE; Ry Russo-Young, YOU WON'T MISS ME, ORPHANS; Tze Chun, CHILDREN OF INVENTION, WINDOWBREAKER

Sunday, March 21

Conversation With Terry George, HOTEL RWANDA | 2-3PM
Moderated by Scott Macaulay, Editor in Chief, FILMMAKER MAGAZINE.

Writing for a New Landscape: New Media & Cross-Platform Opportunities 3-4PM
Moderated by Christian Vesper, Senior Vice President, Acquisitions, Program Planning and Scheduling, SUNDANCE CHANNEL
Featuring Keith Bunin, Writer, IN TREATMENT; Lena Dunham, Writer/Director, TIGHT SHOTS, DELUSIONAL DOWNTOWN DIVAS; Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo and Zack Lieberman, Writers/Directors/Producers, THE WEST SIDE

Conversation with Brian Koppelman, SOLITARY MAN | 5-6PM

Moderated by Elvis Mitchell, Film Critic

IFP' Script to Screen Conference Final Winner Announced

The lucky winner of the Script to Screen Conference pass is Indian Cowboy. According to Twitter, "Indian Cowboy's" real name is Nikhil Kamkolkar and he is a filmmaker/actor/writer from New York. Nikhil will get to ask the following tweeted question to writer Peter Hedges (WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE?, ABOUT A BOY, PIECES OF APRIL) in person.

@#IFPS2S Is writing your second script a harder challenge? Do you or not focus the second script to be more "commercially" viable?

For more information about the contest, read the previous blog post.

To buy tickets and find out more about the Conference: click here.

IFP Will Help Selected Producers (IFP Members Only) Get to Cannes!

IFP, through its partnership with Festival du Cannes Producers Network, will select five American independent producers to participate in the 2010 Cannes Producers Network Fellowship program. The Fellowship will cover the cost of full program registration fees for the selected producers.

Launched in 2004, the Producers Network is a week-long program which runs concurrently with the Festival du Cannes. Conceived to boost international co-productions, the Producers Network welcomes a select group of 550 producers from all over the world, offering many formal and informal networking opportunities to assist producers in finding partners for their projects and expanding their international contacts .

Applicants should have at least one fiction feature-film producing credit and be a current IFP member.

Those interested in consideration for the program should apply with a one-page letter of interest describing the project(s) that would be presented at the Producer’s Network and a resume to Amy Dotson, Deputy Director, IFP, at adotson@ifp.org by Wednesday, March 10th.

IFP Alumni Recieve Documentary Oscar Nominations

Two alumni of Independent Film Week's Spotlight on Documentaries program were honored with Academy Award nominations this morning:

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers is among the 5 nominees for Documentary Feature. Directors Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith brought the film to Spotlight on Documentaries in 2007. It is currently being distributed by First Run Features; it screens in New York City at Cinema Village, and elsewhere around the country.

Roger Ross Williams' Music By Prudence is a Documentary Short nominee. It is being distributed by HBO Documentary Films, who met with Williams when the film was at Independent Film Week in 2008. HBO2 will broadcast it May 12. Music By Prudence also participates in IFP's Fiscal Sponsorship program.

Other documentary nominees include friends of IFP like Lab mentor Julia Reichert's film The Last Truck.

Congratulations to all the nominees! We wish you all the best - we're voting for you in our Oscar pools!

IFP'S 2010 INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER LABS ON THE HORIZON - Start working on your applications over the holidays!

IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs is the only program in the U.S. supporting first-time feature directors with projects at the crucial rough cut stage, before they are submitted to festivals. The Labs are a free, week-long workshop in New York offering personalized feedback and advice on all aspects of the post-production process, audience building, and distribution strategies in the digital age, followed by continued support from IFP as the project premieres in the marketplace. More than half of Lab alumni have gone on to premiere at major festivals - including Berlin, Sundance, SXSW, Toronto, and Venice, and have enjoyed theatrical releases, been broadcast nationally, or released on DVD. Recent Lab projects have included Vanessa Gould’s Between the Folds, which premiered on Independent Lens this month, and Geralyn Pezanoski’s Mine, upcoming on Independent Lens in February; Tom Quinn’s The New Year Parade and Tariq Tapa’s Zero Bridge, both recently nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards (and each a Gotham Award nominee in 2008 and 2009, respectively), and Zeina Durra’s 2009 Lab project, The Imperialists Are Still Alive!, premieres in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2010 next month. Lab applications will be available in January for both the Documentary and Narrative Labs which will take place in spring 2010.

Christina Beck's PERFECTION gets some love from the Adrienne Shelly Foundation

Looking through old programs from IFP's Script to Screen Conference today, I noticed that Adrienne Shelly participated in the 1996 conference devoted to the landscape for independent film and media writers. Devoted as she was to IFP's mission of advocating for and supporting independent filmmakers, it makes sense that the Adrienne Shelly foundation, the non-profit organization dedicated to the memory of writer/director/actor Adrienne Shelly, created a grant 3 years ago to support the work of female directorial alumni from the IFP's Independent Filmmaker Labs. The unrestricted, $5000 grant, called The Adrienne Shelly Director's Grant, went this year to Christina Beck’s PERFECTION, the story of Kristabelle, a woman in her thirties still living at home, who cuts herself to feel alive. She lives with her mother, who is also addicted to cutting through plastic surgery to maintain her youth. Through the help of a pot smoking young lover, a newly sober British comic and a little Chinese medicine, both women soon find that love can be more than skin deep. Pamela Cohn, at Still in Motion, reports that Beck, who she met at Independent Film Week in 2007, "will use this prize, in part, to release some developed film footage (donated by Kodak) that's been held in captivity at FotoKem in Los Angeles, where she resides."

According to the Foundation's website, "We know that Adrienne would like us to do everything possible to help young women pursue their filmmaking dreams, and to assist others in making the same leap from acting to writing and directing as Adrienne had done so successfully." IFP is delighted to be working with the Foundation to support talented female filmmakers like Christina achieve their dreams. The world needs many more of them.

Countdown to the Gotham Awards -- One Week!

Exactly on week from now, at the elegant Cipriani Wall Street, the 19th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards, hosted by comedian Kumail Nanjiani will take place. Indie film heavyweights including Joel and Ethan Coen, Willem Dafoe, Anthony Mackie, Oliver Platt, Jim Sheridan, Brooke Shields and Meryl Streep will all present awards at the celebratory affair. As a remind, here are the nominees for the awards, announced by A.O. "Tony" Scott last month at Norwood. For the first time this year, IFP will stream the entire awards show live on UStream, so if you can't afford the ticket, do tune in online. Details to be announced in the next couple of days.

Free Webcam Chat at Ustream

Three IFP Alumni Shortlisted for Best Documentary Oscar

In the midst of a reception celebrating the nominees for THE BEST FILM NOT PLAYING AT A THEATER NEAR YOU, our film critic friend Karina Longworth pulled out her iPhone to show us the just-posted list of the 15 documentaries shortlisted for this year's Academy Awards. As usual, the IFP has great representation on the list, with 3 of the films having gone through one of our programs.

They are: Garbage Dreams (Spotlight on Docs 2006, Good Pitch 2009), The Most Dangerous Man in America (Spotlight on Docs 2007), and Under Our Skin (Spotlight on Docs 2007). Congratulations to our alumni; our fingers are crossed.

Best Films Not Playing at a Theatre Near You are Coming to a Theatre Near You (If you live in New York that is)

One of the signature programs of IFP's Gotham Independent Film Awards, The Best Film Not Playing at a Theatre Near You is a highlight of the holiday season.



For the fourth year running, MoMA’s Department of Film, in association with IFP and its quarterly publication Filmmaker, screens the five nominees for the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You award. The nominees were selected by senior members of the Filmmaker editorial staff—Scott Macaulay, Jason Guerrasio, Brandon Harris, Ray Pride, and Alicia Van Couvering—and by Joshua Siegel, associate curator in MoMA’s Department of Film. The five nominees represent this year's best American independent films on the festival circuit that have yet to be picked up for theatrical distribution.

They are:

Mike Palmieri and Donal Mosher's beautifully photographed exploration of family, OCTOBER COUNTRY, which has taken the film festival world by storm.

Ry Russo-Young's YOU WON'T MISS ME , which features an astonishing performance by Stella Schnabel and premiered at January's Sundance Film Festival.

Tariq Tapa's ZERO BRIDGE, filmed entirely
in the war-torn city of Srinagar, Kashmir, with a cast of first-time actors and a one-man crew.

Frazer Bradshaw's directorial debut, EVERYTHING STRANGE AND NEW, a haunting film about the disappointment of growing up and the inevitable fracturing of relationships.

And finally, GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH, a delightful musical mash-up directed by Damien Chazelle.

Don't miss this incredible chance to see films that have not been widely distributed. Buy tickets here.

IFP and Shooting People UK Announce Partnership at Sheffield Doc/Fest

Announced on this side on the pond in the midst of Independent Film Week, IFP has joined forces with Shooting People to combine memberships. Last week, in the midst of the UK's biggest and most exciting film festival for nonfiction film, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Jess Search, co-founder of Shooting People (pictured), Ingrid Kopp, US director of Shooting People (pictured), and Danielle DiGiacomo (Community Manager of IFP, and also yours truly) officially announced the dual membership to their 21,948-strong UK constituency.

At the festival, IFP worked to spread the goals and resources of IFP to the international community of filmmakers that attended, including moderating a panel on Documentary Filmmaking: Making a Sustainable Living, while Shooting People ran a Digital Bootcamp as well as a pub quiz at the BritDoc pub (where these happy photos were taken).

Making the Transition: Life (and Blogging) Post Independent Film Week

Well we've managed to wipe the tears from our eyes, soak our feet, and get back to work. Life goes on and we have a lot to prepare for, from the upcoming Gotham Awards to our next Industry Connect.

But first, the obvious question. What happens to the blog now that Independent Film Week has ended? Do we devote all of our items to looking forward (roughly) 358 days toward next year's incarnation? Or do we focus our attention on other IFP programs throughout the year, our intersection with industry trends, independent film landmarks, etc. Why, an obvious question gets an obvious answer. So, in the next few days, we will be transitioning from being the Independent Film Week blog to being the all things IFP blog.

So while we try to brainstorm a new name for the blog, we will leave you with some more press coverage of last week, from the good folks at Film News Briefs, The P.O.V. blog , and The Enzian Blog and The Film Panel Notetaker .

A Fond Farewell to Independent Film Week

And it's over - a week of insightful and funny panels, productive cocktail parties, speed dating meetings between filmmakers and industry, and what is sure to go down in history as one of the most inspiring Pitch Forums ever. As we are all getting the feeling in our legs - and our brain cells - back, I am leaving it to the dedicated and lively Tweeters who helped cover the Week, to communicate what an amazing six days just went by.

studioc Sad #ifpfilmweek is over. Great panelists Great meetings Great People Thank you IFP Narrative Labs. MAKE GREAT MOVIES EVERYONE. best of luck

JustVisionMedia Finished with a great week at #IFPFilmWeek!

fromthehip All the amazing oranizations heresy the Good Pitch make me feel like I need to do MORE in a big way. #ifpfilmweek

bsroszell It was a lot of fun. See you all in Park City!(fingers crossed...)RT @thetested: it's a wrap. it's all just a swell memory now #ifpfilmweek

markwynns misses being at #ifpfilmweek

markwynns, I feel you.

Theory Meets Practice - Getting and Discussing Distribution at the Independent Film Conference

As I update the IFP newsletter every week, I get to see our "hometown heroes" - the IFP Alumni made good. (Which the vast majority of them do.) This very week, OBJECTS AND MEMORY, a documentary that participated in Spotlight on Docs in both 2006 and 2007 (and I know this firsthand, as I sat, as a potential distributor, across the table from the filmmaker) will premiere to a national audience on PBS, and Ian Olds's wrenching and important documentary THE FIXER will be broadcast on HBO. (I also sat across the table from Ian last year).

It's wonderful of course, to see one's organization supporting amazing and successful filmmakers. But what is also interesting is the various ways that the films roll out in our ever-shifting distribution landscape, and how everything these filmmakers deal with -- every decision they and their dedicated teams make - is something that is continually shifting, and being addressed throughout the Week, by them and their colleagues, at the Filmmaker Conference.

Take distribution - a subject of much angst, confusion, fascination, excitement. If you look at the films in the newsletter for the last two weeks, you can see the broad array of distribution paths different films take these days. COLD SOULS, Sophie Barthes' philosedy (when this term takes of in the same way as "Mumblecore," please credit me) took the path of least resistance - traditional arthouse theatrical. While the social issue documentary MADE IN L.A. rocked out the multi-platform hybrid release with not only a PBS broadcast, but multiple ways of distributing the DVD - which includes allowing organizations of different sizes to put on screenings that will benefit their own related missions. While the MADE IN L.A. team (Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo) were able to be effective by partnering their unique self-distribution ideas with more traditional distributors - PBS and California Newsreel - the innovative filmmaker Nina Paley created an bold new way of self-distributing her daring and genre-defying film SITA SINGS THE BLUES. Using the Creative Commons share-alike license, she writes on her website, she is able to ask anyone to "please distribute, copy, share, archive, and show Sita Sings the Blues."

So while in one room, filmmakers like Barthes, Bahar, and Carracedo are sitting at tables, pitching their projects to producers, distributors, and broadcasters, other tastemakers and filmmakers are in another, engaging in enlightening conversations about the ways in which these films can intersect with an audience.

And this is just one example of the synthesis that is Independent Film Week - a true coupling of practice - working filmmakers finding funds, finding distribution - and theory -- panels discussing big questions like where will distribution go next? How does Web 2.0 affect this? What are the new innovations? How can social media help with financing? By the time the Conference rolls around, some of the answers may be different than they are today.

Line Up For The Good Pitch at Independent Film Week announced

The lineup for the Good Pitch at IFP’s Independent Film Week, taking place in New York City on 24 September was announced today.

The Good Pitch brings together inspiring social-justice film projects and a group of expert participants from charities, foundations, brands, government and media to form powerful alliances around groundbreaking films. For more information see The Good Pitch Website

The Good Pitch in North America is a partnership between the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP), generously supported by the Fledgling Fund, Working Films, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tides Foundation and anonymous donors.

From nearly 200 applications, eight filmmaking teams have been selected to pitch their films and outreach campaigns to an invited audience, in order to amplify the impact of their social-issue documentary projects.

The selected filmmakers are Michael L. Brown (25 to Life), Glenn Baker (Easy Like Water), Mai Iskander (Garbage Dreams), Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel (Rose & Nangabire), Gayle Ferraro (To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America), Beth Murphy (What Tomorrow Brings), Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern (Youthbuild) and Mary Ann Smothers Bruni (Zhinan).

For the full press release, visit: http://www.ifp.org/ifpnews/newsitem.php?id=653

About the Independent Filmmaker Conference and IFP

About IFP's Independent Filmmaker Conference

Running concurrently with the 31^st Independent Film Week (formerly IFP Market), the Conference addresses creative initiatives, critical technology, current issues, and global marketplace trends through diverse panel discussions, case studies, and keynotes. The Conference is a must-attend social networking opportunity for creative professionals wanting access to the discussion on filmmaking in the current landscape – and where it’s heading next.

About IFP

After debuting with a program in the 1979 New York Film Festival, the nonprofit IFP has evolved into the nation's oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers, and also the premier advocate for them. Since its start, IFP has supported the production of 7,000 films and provided resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers' voices that otherwise might not have been heard. IFP believes that independent films broaden the palette of cinema, seeding the global culture with new ideas, kindling awareness, and fostering activism.

Currently, IFP represent a network of 10,000 filmmakers in New York City and around the world. Through its workshops, seminars, conferences, mentorships, and Filmmaker Magazine, IFP schools its members in the art, technology, and business of independent filmmaking (there are special programs to promote racial, ethnic, religious, ideological, gender, and sexual diversity). IFP builds audiences by hosting screenings, often in collaboration with other cultural institutions and also bestows the Gotham Independent Film Awards™, the first honors of the film awards season. When all is said and done, IFP fosters the development of 350 feature and documentary films each year.