As the year winds down, we continue one of our many hallowed traditions of providing a weekly recap of film industry-related news, interviews, criticism, and commentary that we hope you’ll use to further your directing/producing/acting/movie-watching careers and hobbies. Aren’t you glad you learned to read all those years back?
This Week’s Good Reads (Week of December 9, 2019)
How to Find the Perfect Niche for Your Indie Films (via Rob Hardy for Filmmaker Freedom)
Niche – which goes beyond “genre” – may be the key to a successful indie release.
The Safdie Brothers’ Full-Immersion Filmmaking (via Kelefa Sanneh for The New Yorker)
Following the Safdies’ journey to the Sandlerverse.
Hits & Misses 2019: Surveying the Success of the Sundance Film Festival’s Theatrical Releases (via Anthony Kaufman for Filmmaker Magazine)
Checking in on the past year in Sundance releases.
DIY Film Distribution In The New Decade (via Sean Mannion for KitSplit Viewfinder)
How to tackle your own film release.
Why These Are the 8 Best-Cast Films of 2019 (via Chris O’Falt for IndieWire)
Top casting directors chime in on the films that did it best in 2019.
However improbably, the 2010s became the decade of Terrence Malick (via Jesse Hassenger for The A.V. Club)
The reclusive director’s sudden decade of abundance.
New Releases
Movies from our December Movie Picks out this week:
- Black Christmas (Universal Pictures)
- Bombshell (Lionsgate)
- Cunningham (Magnolia Pictures)
- The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (Momentum Pictures)
- Jumanji: The Next Level (Columbia Pictures)
- Seberg (Amazon Studios)
- Uncut Gems (A24)
A video worth watching
A 2019 Movie Countdown Montage Music Video Spectacle (via David Ehrlich)
THE 25 BEST FILMS OF 2019: A VIDEO COUNTDOWN from david ehrlich on Vimeo.
How ’bout you? Read anything good this week?
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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.
