Next month, we’re hosting the Film Independent Forum, our annual conference for independent filmmakers that proves it actually is what you know and who you know—not either/or. It’s a special year for the Forum, partly because it’s its tenth anniversary and partly because we’ve got two of the most groundbreaking people in the biz delivering the keynotes: writer/director Jill Soloway (Transparent, Afternoon Delight, United States of Tara, Six Feet Under) and Tim League (Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Drafthouse Films and Fantastic Fest). Here’s why we can’t wait to hear what this year’s keynote speakers have on their minds.

Soloway isn’t shy about criticizing the “rules” about women characters—or about breaking them.
In a recent interview she said, “Rootable women or likable women is a kind of trope that I was asked to be part of [while] working on getting network pilots picked up for a decade. ‘She’s not likable.’ ‘No woman would ever talk to another man romantically while she’s married.’ ‘No mom would ever do anything that would make it seem like she wasn’t thinking about her children all day.’ The rules about what women would do are super antiquated.”

She may be the most successful part of Amazon’s exciting experiment in populist programming.
A little less than a month before the Forum, Amazon will release the full first season of Jill Soloway’s new series Transparent, whose pilot debuted in February and has been highly hyped ever since. Jill told New York magazine’s Vulture that she was drawn to Amazon’s new model—one which minimizes the power of the gatekeepers. “Amazon really felt like, they’re going to make this thing right away, and if it turns out good, it’ll go on the air. You know, when you go to a network or even Showtime or HBO, your pilot has to be passed to the people upstairs, and the people upstairs, and on and on, and when I was sitting with [Amazon Studios head of original programming Joe Lewis], it was clear it was just him. I could easily see all the levels of politics washing away from the process in that first meeting.”

“Soloway’s show tries to fast-forward past the incremental water-testing that network TV has historically applied to shifts like this, to skip the eggshell-walking and the audience-coddling. She wants to give her viewers a fully realized trans character.”—The New York Times Magazine
This is a great thing. #Diversity

And she knows how to rock a jumpsuit.
Just sayin.’

League is frank about what it takes to get an audience to turn out for an indie.
In a recent interview, he explained:  “We [at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema] receive submissions and the first thing we do is watch the films. The most important thing is that we readily see an audience, that there is an exploitable angle to the film,” he told Forbes. “And if there is, then there is a good shot that there is a slot for it in our programming.”

League also gets the importance of filmmakers thinking of themselves as a brand. When asked how non-studio films get programmed into his theaters, he said, “Sometimes it’s local filmmakers… who demonstrate that they understand how to develop a community around themselves. And so, for example, we have the Zellner brothers who recognize that the strength of their brand is their personalities. So they are versed in social media and utilize the fact that they are a PR asset. So if the Zellners want to show a collection of their shorts, we know that they will work hard and that they already have a fan base that will support their work as artists. So it is a really important factor, for those just starting out in the independent film scene, to recognize that you are a brand. And as crass as that may sound, it’s your responsibility to show exhibitors that you can help find and provide an audience for your work.”

Drafthouse Films isn’t afraid to reject the conventional release strategy mindset.
They recently went ultra, ultra-VOD, releasing Ari Folman’s The Congress, a partially animated sci-fi film starring Robin Wright as herself, a full month before its theatrical release. He told Indiewire: “It doesn’t work for every title, but I think it is a good way to go for indie films that have a strong cast and an audience that consumes on VOD platforms. When you simply don’t have the budget to mount a national campaign twice, once for theatrical and once again for digital/VOD, it helps to compress the windows so that your one press hit is effective in both spaces. An ultra-VOD release undoubtedly hurts your theatrical revenue, but if we have confidence that the overall revenue will be greater, we will release it that way.“

At Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, you can’t text—they will eject you—but you can drink beer during the movie.
Genius.

The Film Independent Forum takes place October 24-26 at the Directors Guild of America (DGA). Our opening night film is Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo and Bill Paxton. Panels of acclaimed filmmakers and industry insiders will cover such hot topics as: financing, what it takes to launch a series and the producer/director partnership. Passes are $275 for Film Independent Members and $325 for non-Members. Reduced early registration rates are available until September 19. For more information or to purchase a pass, visit filmindependent.org/forum or call 310.432.1222.

Pamela Miller / Website & Grants Manager