Life is busy. You’re Saving Daylight while being wary of March’s Ides (do other months have Ides?). 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 (March 2025)
Don’t Call Them ‘Extras.’ For One Night, Hollywood’s Background Actors Are the Real Stars (via Samantha Masunaga for Los Angeles Times)
Inside the Background Actors Awards.
A Massive List of Spring 2025 Grants, Labs & Fellowships (via Laura Moss for No Film School)
Money is tight, but these groups are still giving it out!
From “Back” To Bust: Inside The Epic Implosion Of Technicolor (via Andreas Wiseman for Deadline)
The collapse of a legendary Hollywood company.
To Make Toots, My Sensitive Film About Aging, I Needed the Perfect Fart Noise (via Chris Evans for MovieMaker Magazine)
Even the most juvenile of sound effects must be taken seriously.
Almodóvar’s Women (via Alana Pockros for The Point)
On Pedro (y Tilda y Julianne y Penélope y Francisca y todas las mujeres).
How to Steal a Scene (via Isaac Butler for The Criterion Collection)
There are no small roles, just small actors!
Did I Just Invent the Formula for Underrated Directors? (via Sophie for That Final Scene)
How to tell if a filmmaker is over-, under-, or properly rated.
Oscars 2025, an Indie Triumph? (via Leonardo Goi for Mubi Notebook)
What it means that Anora, Flow, and The Brutalist became indie Oscar-winners.
SAG-AFTRA Reaffirms Diversity Efforts as Hollywood Companies Cut Back (via Kalia Richardson for Rolling Stone)
The actors’ union stands up against the gutting of DEI initiatives.
My Cool Friend Michelle (via Mara Wilson for Vulture)
The late Michelle Trachtenberg as remembered by a fellow veteran of the childhood stardom trenches.
When Controversy Kills a Movie, His Tiny Studio Buys It on the Cheap (via John Jurgensen for The Wall Street Journal)
A peek inside Briarcliff Entertainment, the distributor that saved The Apprentice and Magazine Dreams from the shelf.
One Bold Idea That Could Save California’s Film and TV Industry (via Adam Bhala Lough for The Hollywood Reporter)
Should the state invest in individual films instead of the film industry at large?
The Sundance Film Festival Announces Its New Home: Boulder, Colorado (via Mandalit del Barco for NPR)
Bye-bye, Beehive State. Hello, (checks notes) Centennial State(?).
From Prison to Writer to Mentor (via Lisa Rosen for Written By)
How formerly incarcerated screenwriter Sammy Horowitz co-created the WGA’s Justice-Impacted Writers Project.
In case you were ignoring us (aka blatant self-promotion)
Casting Masterclass Panel Series – SAG-AFTRA Foundation
SAGindie’s Michael Sládek moderated a trio of panels with casting directors Kim Miscia, Allison Estrin, and James Calleri.
2025 South By Southwest Film Festival Recap
All our awesome Austin affairs.
Filmmaker Interview: Tracie Laymon, writer/director/producer of Bob Trevino Likes It
We talked to last year’s SXSW award-winner about making her semi-autobiographical feature debut.
Videos worth watching
Study your Coppolas! (via @itsmelanieherrera)
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.