IFP's Interim ED, Joana Vicente, to Judge Shooting People's May Film of the Month

IFP's Interim Executive Director and noted independent film producer Joana Vicente will be judging our partner organization Shooting People's Film of the Month this month. Along with her producing partner, Jason Kliot, Joana has produced over thirty films by directors such as Jim Jarmusch, De Palma, Hal Hartley, Steven Soderbergh and Todd Solondz. Included among the many films that Vicente and Kliot have produced are acclaimed pictures like Tony Bui's Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award-winner THREE SEASONS, Jim Jarmusch's cult classic COFFEE AND CIGARETTES, Niels Mueller's THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON, Todd Solondz's Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, Brian De Palma's controversial REDACTED and Alex Gibney's Academy Award nominated documentary, ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM.

Vicente's films have garnered numerous accolades and awards over the years,including twenty-three total Independent Spirit Award nominations and four wins. In 2007, she was the recipient of the 'Made in NY' Award for individuals who have made outstanding contributions to New York City's entertainment industry.

If you'd like the chance of having Joana watch and review your film, just join Shooting People (IFP members get a free membership) and upload it to your profile before 27 May.

B-Side Finds its New Home at IFP

In huge news for filmmakers and festivals around the world, IFP, in conjunction with New York-based company Slated, announced today that B-Side’s Festival Genius™ technology and database has found a new home. Slated has acquired all of recently shuttered B-Side’s intellectual property, and effective immediately has licensed the B-Side Festival Genius to IFP. Senior Executives from B-Side including founder Chris Hyams have joined Slated, while key members of B-Side’s festival team are joining IFP. The move will transform IFP, exponentially expanding its potential membership base and the organization’s ability to build audiences for independent films, and help individual filmmakers identify, build and connect with those audiences. Slated will take over B-Side’s business of providing market research services to independent film producers and distributors and will roll out new products and services later this year.

Festival Genius provides critical infrastructure to support film festivals and independent filmmakers and promote voices that might not otherwise be heard. Over the past four years, B-Side’s Festival Genius hosted online program guides for over 200 international film festivals, capturing audience feedback on 40,000 feature films from over 3 million annual visitors and building a registered membership of 200,000 film fans. IFP will now take over the running of these online film festival program guides and plans to significantly expand the reach of Festival Genius while keeping costs to the festivals nominal. IFP will continue B-Side’s past practice of sharing Festival Genius audience data with festivals and will soon start sharing data with IFP member filmmakers, offering them a direct line to audience feedback.

Several B-Side festival partners, including Sundance Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, Austin Film Festival, Independent Film Festival of Boston, Newport Beach Film Festival, Phoenix Film Festival, and NewFest: The NYC LGBT Film Festival have already committed to use Festival Genius again this year in its new incarnation.

Notes Joseph Beyer, Associate Director Sundance Institute Online, “Thanks to B-Side, the 2010 Sundance Film Festival program’s film guide was widely and universally recognized as the best in the history of the event. We are absolutely thrilled to see the Festival Genius and B-Side team find a new home, and are looking forward to an even better film guide for 2011.”

Notes Joana Vicente, IFP’s Executive Director: “This is a game changer for IFP and our mission. Festival Genius is an essential service for the independent film-making community – for festivals, film-lovers and filmmakers. IFP has always been the place where filmmakers, the film industry and audiences intersect. This partnership is an exciting step forward in our mission, in that it literally places IFP where audiences interact with filmmakers on the web. We now have the potential to reach all of Festival Genius’s 200,000 film fans worldwide. These fans will be offered a one-year free IFP membership and we will host a network of sites that is in contact with 3 million independent filmgoers a year. We are confident this is a tremendous growth opportunity for IFP and that we are uniquely situated to expand the potential of the Festival Genius platform.”

And They're Off! IFP Alumni (and some Staff) hit Park City

Yup, it's that time of year again. When Robert Redford dusts off his snowshoes, and the film industry get our their Airborne tabs! This year, IFP's new Interim Executive Director Joana Vicente and Milton Tabbot, Senior Director of Programming, are braving the cold, along with a couple dozen IFP alumni, who are premiere at the Dances - both Sun and Slam. And for your pleasure, they'll be blogging and posting photos right at this spot. Jason Springer-Koff, director of Life 2.0 has very generously agreed to share his big premiere experience with all of us! And we have a few other surprises in store.