Dear Producer: Indie Film Nuts and Bolts with Cold Iron’s Amanda Marshall
The following blog and video piece originally ran on the website Dear Producer and is shared here courtesy of that website’s editor Rebecca Green, a Film Independent Fellow and Creative Advisor. Excerpts from Dear Producer appear on our blog regularly.
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Once upon a time, Amanda Marshall started as an intern at Ambush Entertainment. After many years of saying “yes” to the tasks no one else wanted to do, she now works as the President of that very same company, re-named Cold Iron Pictures.
Amanda has produced such films as the Sundance Film Festival selection and A24 acquisition, Swiss Army Man, starring Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, and executive produced Marielle Heller’s Gotham and Spirit Award-winning film The Diary of a Teenage Girl.
In this interview, Amanda shares precisely what she looks for in a project, both as a producer and financier, as well as tips on how to assemble a crew that best supports the director’s vision. We also talk about the ever-changing market and why aiming for theatrical distribution is still so important, particularly for independent films.
Amanda Marshall is President of Cold Iron Pictures where she nurtures, develops and produces high quality independent films with up and coming filmmakers.
She’s produced such films as the Sundance Film Festival selection and A24 acquisition Swiss Army Man, starring Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, Mike Birbiglia’s Don’t Think Twice and Lake Bell’s I Do… Until I Don’t. She also executive produced Marielle Heller’s Gotham and Spirit Award-winning The Diary of a Teenage Girl as well as Joseph Cedar’s Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, starring Richard Gere, and Oren Moverman’s Time Out of Mind. In 2018 she produced You Can Choose Your Family, starring Jim Gaffigan, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival. Her most recent production Untitled Amazing Jonathan Documentary premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
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(Header: 2016’s Swiss Army Man)