Life is busy. You’re celebrating Bowls (Super and Puppy), Awards (Spirit and SAG), and even Days (Valentine’s and Presidents’). It can be tough to stay up-to-date on film industry news, profiles, analysis, and advice. That’s why we’ve curated some essential reads you may have missed over the past month. So take some time to catch up with this month’s good reads!
This Month’s Good Reads (February 2025)
With Companion, BoulderLight Cements Itself As One of the Most Exciting Production Outfits in Hollywood (via Josh Weiss for Forbes)
Meet the producers aiming to become Blumhouse 2.0.
Best in Fest: Experts on Where (& How) to Sell an Indie Film Now (via Ashley Cullins for The Ankler)
A peek behind the dealmaking curtain.
How the Oscar Race Got as Messy as Conclave (via Michael Schulman for The New Yorker)
A rundown of the PR snafus peppering this year’s Oscar nominees.
U.S. Documentary Film Nonprofits Adjust Amid Drastic Changes to NEA Funding Criteria (via Natalia Keogan for Documentary Magazine)
The state of arts funding under Trump.
When Fans Love a Movie to Death (via Allison Willmore for Vulture)
Impatience and piracy hit Virtual Sundance 2025.
The Rise of Traveling Road Tours: Indie Filmmakers Find New Audiences with a Time-Tested Exhibition Model (via Cory Stillman for IndieWire)
Take your indie on the road!
“It Doesn’t Have to Always Cost $200 million”: DP Lol Crawley on Shooting The Brutalist (Mostly) in VistaVision (via Matt Mulcahey for Filmmaker Magazine)
The tricks to filming a mega epic on a non-mega budget.
Charles Burnett on Resurrecting The Annihilation of Fish and a Humanist Approach to Mental Illness (via Ethan Vestby for The Film Stage)
How one bad review buried the James Earl Jones-starring romance for 25 years, and the filmmaker on its return to screens.
No Time to Delay: Why Amazon Took Control of James Bond as Next 007 Movie Remains in Limbo (via Brent Lang & Rebecca Rubin for Variety)
A major film franchise changes hands for the first time in 60 years.
Robert Altman at 100: The Enduring Legacy of ‘The Pirate King of American Filmmaking’ (via Louis Chilton for The Independent)
Celebrating the centennial of the M*A*S*H and Gosford Park auteur.
Inside the Outside: Notes on the “Subjective” Camera (via Lawrence Garcia for Mubi Notebook)
Nickel Boys, Presence, and a history of the first-person-POV film.
‘I Didn’t Know I Needed It.’ Why Neighborhoods Rally to Save Movie Houses. (via Kendra Nordin Beato for The Christian Science Monitor)
The communities coming together for their local cinemas.
The Death of the Classic Film Score (via Fran Hoepfner for Vulture)
Experimentation is taking over film music.
How The Substance Helped Mubi Break Through (via Nicole Sperling for The New York Times)
The Netflix-for-real-cinephiles has hit the mainstream.
‘He Let Us Hate Him’: Gene Hackman Had a Rare Power – He Didn’t Need to Be Liked (via David Thompson for The Guardian)
Commemorating Hollywood’s legendary gruff man.
In case you were ignoring us (aka blatant self-promotion)
2025 Sundance Film Festival Recap
SAGindie’s favorite films and Sundance Award-winners.
2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards Winners
Congrats to this year’s winners!
Videos worth watching
The process of making an Anora 35mm print, with Sean Baker (via Letterboxd)
How ’bout you? Read anything good this month?
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If you’re an independent filmmaker or know of an independent film-related topic we should write about, email blogadmin@sagindie.org for consideration.
