Here Are Your 2026 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominees!
Hurray for Hollywood! The 41st annual Film Independent Spirit Awards are just around the corner and headed to the Hollywood Palladium. Today, we’re excited to announce the nominees for the 2026 Spirit Awards.
Spirit Awards winners are voted on exclusively by Film Independent Members. Be sure to join by December 16 to receive access to nominee screeners and full Spirit Awards Member benefits.
The show will stream live from the heart of Tinseltown, celebrating the best of independent film and television. Tune in Sunday, February 15, 2026 at 5 pm ET / 2 pm PT on the Film Independent and IMDb YouTube channels, and across Film Independent’s social platforms.
The nominations were announced earlier today on our YouTube channel – watch the announcement below and, of course, like and subscribe!
And for the logophiles out there, here are this year’s nominees, all typed out just for you:
Film Categories
BEST FEATURE (Award given to the producer)
Peter Hujar’s Day
Producers: Jonah Disend, Jordan Drake
The Plague
Producers: Derek Dauchy, Joel Edgerton, Roy Lee, Lucy McKendrick, Steven Schneider, Lizzie Shapiro
Sorry, Baby
Producers: Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski
Train Dreams
Producers: Michael Heimler, Will Janowitz, Marissa McMahon, Ashley Schlaifer, Teddy Schwarzman
Twinless
Producers: David Permut, James Sweeney
BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to director and producer)
Blue Sun Palace
Director: Constance Tsang
Producers: Sally Sujin Oh, Eli Raskin, Tony Yang
Dust Bunny
Director/Producer: Bryan Fuller
Producers: Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee
East of Wall
Director/Producer: Kate Beecroft
Producers: Shannon Moss, Melanie Ramsayer, Lila Yacoub
Lurker
Director: Alex Russell
Producers: Galen Core, Archie Madekwe, Marc Marrie, Charlie McDowell, Francesco Melzi D’Eril, Duncan Montgomery, Alex Orlovsky, Olmo Schnabel, Jack Selby
One of Them Days
Director: Lawrence Lamont
Producers: Deniese Davis, Poppy Hanks, James Lopez, Issa Rae, Sara Rastogi
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – Given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000 (Award given to the writer, director and producer)
The Baltimorons
Director/Writer/Producer: Jay Duplass
Writer/Producer: Michael Strassner
Producers: David Bonnett Jr., Drew Langer
Boys Go to Jupiter
Director/Writer: Julian Glander
Eephus
Director/Writer/Producer: Carson Lund
Writer/Producer: Michael Basta
Writer: Nate Fisher
Producers: David Entin, Tyler Taormina
Esta Isla (This Island)
Directors/Writers/Producers: Cristian Carretero, Lorraine Jones Molina
Writer: Kisha Tikina Burgos
Familiar Touch
Director/Writer/Producer: Sarah Friedland
Producers: Alexandra Byer, Matthew Thurm
BEST DIRECTOR
Clint Bentley
Train Dreams
Mary Bronstein
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Lloyd Lee Choi
Lucky Lu
Ira Sachs
Peter Hujar’s Day
Eva Victor
Sorry, Baby
BEST SCREENPLAY
Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin
Splitsville
Angus MacLachlan
A Little Prayer
James Sweeney
Twinless
Christian Swegal
Sovereign
Eva Victor
Sorry, Baby
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Andrew DeYoung
Friendship
Elena Oxman
Outerlands
Alex Russell
Lurker
Syreeta Singleton
One of Them Days
Constance Tsang
Blue Sun Palace
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
Everett Blunck
The Plague
Rose Byrne
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Kathleen Chalfant
Familiar Touch
Chang Chen
Lucky Lu
Joel Edgerton
Train Dreams
Dylan O’Brien
Twinless
Keke Palmer
One of Them Days
Théodore Pellerin
Lurker
Tessa Thompson
Hedda
Ben Whishaw
Peter Hujar’s Day
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Naomi Ackie
Sorry, Baby
Zoey Deutch
Nouvelle Vague
Kirsten Dunst
Roofman
Rebecca Hall
Peter Hujar’s Day
Nina Hoss
Hedda
Jane Levy
A Little Prayer
Archie Madekwe
Lurker
Kali Reis
Rebuilding
Jacob Tremblay
Sovereign
Haipeng Xu
Blue Sun Palace
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Liz Larsen
The Baltimorons
Misha Osherovich
She’s the He
Kayo Martin
The Plague
SZA
One of Them Days
Tabatha Zimiga
East of Wall
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Alex Ashe
Peter Hujar’s Day
Norm Li
Blue Sun Palace
David J. Thompson
Warfare
Adolpho Veloso
Train Dreams
Nicole Hirsch Whitaker
Dust Bunny
BEST EDITING
Ben Leonberg
Good Boy
Carson Lund
Eephus
Fin Oates
Warfare
Sara Shaw
Splitsville
Sofía Subercaseaux
The Testament of Ann Lee
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast
The Long Walk
Director: Francis Lawrence
Casting Director: Rich Delia
Ensemble Cast: Judy Greer, Mark Hamill, Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Tut Nyuot, Joshua Odjick, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Garrett Wareing
BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)
Come See Me in the Good Light
Director/Producer: Ryan White
Producers: Jessica Hargrave, Tig Notaro, Stef Willen
Endless Cookie
Director: Peter Scriver
Director/Producer: Seth Scriver
Producers: Dan Bekerman, Alex Ordanis, Jason Ryle, Chris Yurkovich
My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
Director/Producer: Julia Loktev
The Perfect Neighbor
Director/Producer: Geeta Gandbhir
Producers: Sam Bisbee, Nikon Kwantu, Alisa Payne
The Tale of Silyan
Director/Producer: Tamara Kotevska
Producers: Jean Dakar, Anna Hashmi, Jordanco Petkovski
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)
All That’s Left of You
Palestine, Jordan, Germany, Cyprus
Director: Cherien Dabis
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Zambia, UK, Ireland
Director: Rungano Nyoni
A Poet
Colombia
Director: Simón Mesa Soto
The Secret Agent
Brazil
Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Sirāt
Spain
Director: Oliver Laxe
Emerging Filmmaker Awards
PRODUCERS AWARD – The Producers Award, now in its 29th year, honors an emerging producer who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrates the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films. This award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.
Emma Hannaway
Luca Intili
Tony Yang
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 32nd year, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. This award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.
Tatti Ribeiro
Director of Valentina
Neo Sora
Director of Happyend
Annapurna Sriram
Director of Fucktoys
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 31st year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. This award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.
Tony Benna
Director of André is an Idiot
Rajee Samarasinghe
Director of Your Touch Makes Others Invisible
Brittany Shyne
Director of Seeds
Television Categories
BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES (Award given to the Creator, Executive Producer, Co-Executive Producer)
Citizen Nation
Creator: Bret Sigler
Executive Producers: Christopher Buck, Kyra Darnton
Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time
Executive Producers: Jonathan Chinn, Simon Chinn, Ryan Coogler, Myles Estey, Ted Skillman, Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Peter Nicks, Kalia King, Carolyn Payne, Sean David Johnson
Co-Executive Producer: Kelli Buchanan
Pee-wee as Himself
Executive Producers: Matt Wolf, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Paul Reubens, Candace Tomarken, Kyle Martin, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez
Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television
Executive Producers: Issa Rae, Montrel McKay, John Maggio, Rachel Dretzin, John Ealer, Jonathan Berry, Dave Becky, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez
Co-Executive Producers: Esther Dere, Zachary Herrmann
Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae
Executive Producers: Ezra Edelman, Caroline Waterlow, Amy Kaufman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riva Marker
Co-Executive Producer: Mark Becker
BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES (Award given to the Creator, Executive Producer, Co-Executive Producer)
Adolescence
Creators/Executive Producers: Jack Thorne, Stephen Graham
Executive Producers: Philip Barantini, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Nina Wolarsky, Hannah Walters, Mark Herbert, Emily Feller
Co-Executive Producers: Carina Sposato, Niall Shamma, Peter Balm
Common Side Effects
Creators/Executive Producers: Joe Bennett, Steve Hely
Executive Producers: Mike Judge, Greg Daniels, Dustin Davis, James Merrill, Sean Buckelew, Benjy Brooke, Kelly Crews, Suzanna Makkos
Co-Executive Producer: Dave King
Forever
Creator/Executive Producer: Mara Brock Akil
Executive Producers: Regina King, Susie Fitzgerald, Shana C. Waterman, Reina King, Anthony Hemingway, Judy Blume, Erika Harrison, Sara E. White
Co-Executive Producer: Jerron Horton
Mr Loverman
Executive Producers: Lennie James, Hong Khaou, Jo McClellan, Faye Ward, Hannah Farrell, Hannah Price
North of North
Creators/Executive Producers: Stacey Aglok MacDonald, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril
Executive Producers: Garry Campbell, Anya Adams, Susan Coyne, Miranda de Pencier
Co-Executive Producers: Teresa M. Ho, Michael Goldbach, Kathryn Borel Jr., JP Larocque
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Sydney Chandler
Alien: Earth
Stephen Graham
Adolescence
Ethan Hawke
The Lowdown
Lennie James
Mr Loverman
Anna Lambe
North of North
Lola Petticrew
Say Nothing
Seth Rogen
The Studio
Lovie Simone
Forever
Michelle Williams
Dying for Sex
Noah Wyle
The Pitt
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Ariyon Bakare
Mr Loverman
Babou Ceesay
Alien: Earth
Sharon D Clarke
Mr Loverman
Taylor Dearden
The Pitt
Erin Doherty
Adolescence
Stephen McKinley Henderson
A Man on the Inside
Poorna Jagannathan
Deli Boys
Xosha Roquemore
Forever
Jenny Slate
Dying for Sex
Ben Whishaw
Black Doves
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Asif Ali
Deli Boys
Wally Baram
Overcompensating
Owen Cooper
Adolescence
Michael Cooper Jr.
Forever
Ernest Kingsley Junior
Washington Black
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Chief of War
Ensemble Cast: Charlie Brumbly, Luciane Buchanan, Cliff Curtis, Brandon Finn, Moses Goods, Te Ao o Hinepehinga, Benjamin Hoetjes, Siua Ikale’o, Keala Kahuanui-Paleka, Mainei Kinimaka, Kaina Makua, Jason Momoa, Temuera Morrison, Te Kohe Tuhaka, James Udom
Congratulations to all of the nominees, and remember to tune in to the 41st Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday, February 15, 2026 at 5 pm ET / 2 pm PT. The show will be streamed live on the Film Independent and IMDb YouTube channels, and across our social platforms.
Want to vote for the winners of the 2026 Spirit Awards? Become a Member by December 16th, and you’ll be able to watch screeners of the nominees and vote for the winners, plus you’ll get year-round access to a plethora of virtual and in-person screenings, special events, education, workshops and more.
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Don’t Miss Indies: What to Watch in December
‘Tis the season for generosity, humankindness, and curling up with a good flick – the last of which, according to Film Independent’s mission, ideally will serve all the rest. A good flick offers more than an entertaining pause in December activity, but actually enlightens and expands the potential to inhabit it. To simply be here for it.
Human stories that make you feel more human. Let’s dig in.
PREDATORS
When You Can Watch: December 4
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Director: David Osit
Cast: Bryce, Chris Hansen, Dani Jayden
Why We’re Excited: Seventeen years after the popular TV series To Catch A Predator, Emmy- and Peabody-award winning David Osit (Thank You For Playing) asked himself, “Why don’t I make a film about how much true crime bothers me?” – quoted in an interview with Documentary Magazine. The result explores the phenomenon of the show’s success, and how it handled people’s stories, using young-looking decoys to lure child predators to a house full of cameras. There Chris Hansen would confront them, then release them to a waiting police team. Featuring interviews with some of the series decoys as well as imitators of the show, the documentary raises more questions than it answers, leaving us to do business with what we’ve seen and draw our own conclusions about ethical documentation.
100 NIGHTS OF HERO
When You Can Watch: December 5
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Julia Jackman
Cast: Emma Corrin, Richard E. Grant, Nicholas Galitzine
Why We’re Excited: Isabel Greenberg’s 2016bgraphic novel haunted the imagination of Julia Jackman long before she considered herself a filmmaker. In Jackman’s first foray into features, Spirit Award nominee Emma Corrin (A Murder at the End of the World) plays the title role, a charismatic servant in the castle of a fantasy kingdom defined by its god, BirdMan (Spirit Award winner Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?). In the center of the castle predicament, a queen’s responsibility to produce an heir is complicated by a love triangle involving Hero herself and a charming visitor whom the king has enticed to seduce his wife. The light-hearted tone and endearing characters make this epic seem intimate, political, and human.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER
When You Can Watch: December 5
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Kristen Stewart
Cast: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Jim Belushi
Why We’re Excited: This pain-becomes-art memoir is the directorial debut for Academy Award nominee Kristen Stewart (Spencer), who spent eight years getting it made. The screenplay is adapted from the 2011 bestseller by Lidia Yuknavitch. “Not every book can become a movie,” Stewart told Numéro, “but this one swept me away. I immediately wanted to turn it into a collective experience.” Lidia (Imogen Poots, Hedda) and Claudia (Thora Birch, The Midway Point) are sisters who share an abusive past at the hands of their father. As Lidia channels her trauma into competitive swimming, drugs and then writing, she embarks on a poetic exploratory mission to mine her own memories and find her story. The crew includes Film Independent members Rebecca Feuer (Producer) and Olivia Neergaard-Holm (Editor).
MAN FINDS TAPE
When You Can Watch: December 5
Where You Can Watch: Theaters and Streaming
Directors: Paul Gandersman, Peter S. Hall
Cast: John Gholson, Kelsey Pribilski, William Magnusen
Why We’re Excited: Co-creators Paul Gandersman and Peter S. Hall wanted their first feature to have the emotional truth and compelling mystery of Sarah Polley’s 2012 documentary, Stories We Tell. “[Stories is] not a horror film,” said Hall in an interview with Creepy Kingdom, “but it was a huge influence on us because it’s a movie that makes you question the reliability of the person telling the story.” The resulting found footage horror mockumentary premiered at Tribeca, following a documentary filmmaker (Kelsey Pribilski, Landman) who returns to Larkin, Texas to help her brother (William Magnusen, House of Abraham) investigate the tape he found. Between the elusive memories of locals, disturbing supernatural phenomena, and the arrival of a menacing stranger, the siblings’ loyalties are put to the test.
ROSEMEAD
When You Can Watch: December 5
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Eric Lin
Cast: Lucy Liu, Lawrence Shou, Orion Lee
Why We’re Excited: Cinematographer Eric Lin takes his first turn in the director’s chair to bring to life this true story of a widowed mother and her son, who is plagued with violent impulses after the death of his father. Action star Lucy Liu (Kill Bill, Vol. 1) worked on this as a producer for 7 years, embracing the role of Irene and the visceral experience of acting in her first language of Mandarin. Irene is a first generation Chinese-American woman struggling to cope with cultural obligations while caring for her son and facing cancer. The topic of mental health in Asian communities is important to Liu. “It’s about how things can distort when people are living in shame and isolation,” she said in an interview with Parade, commenting on the unique secrecy of family life in Chinese culture and the desperate need for connection. Film Independent members on the production team are Andrew Corkin (Producer), Mynette Louie (Producer), and Tony Yang (Co-Producer).
THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO
When You Can Watch: December 12
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Writer/Director: Diego Céspedes
Cast: Tamara Cortes, Matías Catalán, Paula Dinamarca
Why We’re Excited: As the son of a hairdresser that employed gay men, this story of a queer Chilean community at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic sprang from the heart of Diego Céspedes – even though its 1982 setting is well before his time. Céspedes was 30 when Flamingo won the “Un Certain Regard” at Cannes, capturing hearts with 12-year-old Lidia (Tamara Cortes) and her family of mothers made up of transvestites like Flamenco (Matías Catalán, Bitter Gold) and trans women like Mama Boa (Paula Dinamarca, Naomi Campbel). We experience all this from Lidia’s perspective, as local miners impose blindfolds on her chosen family in an attempt to block the transmission of a mysterious disease through their gaze. Through Lidia, the film explores prejudice and love with fresh eyes.
RESURRECTION
When You Can Watch: December 12
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Writer/Director: Bi Gan
Cast: Jackson Yee, Shu Qi, Mark Chao
Why We’re Excited: Resurrection poses a riddle – “What can one person do that two people can’t?” Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night) explores the importance of dreams in this surreal odyssey in six parts, unfolding a century of cinematic storytelling through individual senses. Jackson Yee (Better Days) is the social outcast who dares embark on this journey through time and perception. The sense of sight is represented in silent film, followed by sound, taste, smell, touch and mind. Gan observed how the storytelling style evolved significantly in the 7 years since he released his previous film. He told THR, “My creative process hasn’t changed much, but the world has. And that made me feel like I had to finally make this film now. I hoped it could bring some comfort to the audience.”
FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER
When You Can Watch: December 24
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Writer/Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik
Why We’re Excited: Spirit Award nominee Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive) wasn’t trying to say anything with this poignant observation of three different families of adult children. In fact, he was deliberately trying to say nothing – hoping to simply let the stories unfold. Inspired largely by the actors he works with, and almost not at all from his own life, Jarmusch started the script by imagining Tom Waits (The Dead Don’t Die) as the father of Spirit Award winner Adam Driver (Marriage Story). When Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory) surfaced as his favorite Jeopardy host, Jarmusch filled out the ensemble of distant parent-child relationships. The other two families feature a British mother and her wildly different daughters, then a recently bereaved pair of Parisian twins. The minimal, humorous and cinematic result is a fitting reflection on life and relationships that will leave you to your own reflections.
SILENT FRIEND
When You Can Watch: December 25
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Ildikó Enyedi
Cast: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm
Why We’re Excited: A conceptual journey through time, as the titular friend – a gingko tree in the center of a German university garden – observes human activity during the 2020 pandemic, where a neuroscientist played by Spirit Award nominee Tony Leung Chiu-wai (Lust, Caution) takes an interest in the tree. In the 70’s and early 1900’s other stories of discovery unfold, a student conducting experiments on plant sensation and a female scientist meeting resistance in a male-dominated field. Director Ildikó Enyedi (On Body and Soul) is intentional about how each time period is portrayed, reflecting distinct attitudes and perceptions through her stylistic choices. The cumulative effect is enchanting, lending to an overarching journey for humanity and nature to connect, as each person lets the natural world inform and then transform them.
PROGRAMMER’S PICK: THE PLAGUE
When You Can Watch: October 25
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Writer/Director: Charlie Polinger
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Everett Blunck, Kenny Rasmussen
Why We’re Excited: From Film Independent Lead Programmer Jenn Wilson:
“Charlie Polinger’s debut feature is set at a water polo camp for 12 and 13 year old boys, and it’s the perfect environment to help him invoke the terrors of adolescence. A young newcomer named Ben (Everett Blunck) seems to be making friends with the popular gang of boys, that is, until he starts to show empathy for Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), another boy at the camp. The cool kids bully Eli about his skin condition. They call it the plague, and theorize that anyone who gets touched by him will catch his condition. Ben quickly learns that remaining popular will come at a high cost as even he begins to be terrified that he’s caught ‘the plague.’ Polinger does an amazing job at directing this terrific cast of kids and Joel Edgerton as their coach, and the cinematography by Steven Breckon is absolutely stunning.”
Produced by Film Independent members Lizzie Shapiro (Producer) and Lexi Tannenholtz (Executive Producer).
KEY
Film Independent Fellow or Member
Film Independent Presents Screening, Q&A
Microbudget
Filmmaker or Lead Characters of Color
Film Independent Spirit Award Winner or Nominee
Female Filmmaker
LGBT Filmmaker or Lead LGBT Characters
First-time Filmmaker
LA Film Festival Winner or Nominee
Want to vote for the winners in the 2026 Spirit Awards? Join Film Independent today! Before you know it, you’ll be knee-deep in screeners and attending in-person screenings, special events, workshops, and more. The 2026 Spirit Award nominations will be announced on December 3.
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Six Thanksgiving Films to Get Your Taste Buds Tingling and Your Heart Pumping
In this life everyone experiences their share of losses, challenges, and setbacks. It’s often said that it’s easier to focus on the bad than the good, and even if that’s true that doesn’t necessarily make it right. When tomorrow isn’t promised, how much more appealing is the memory of joy over sorrow? If life is a cycle, inevitably repeating itself, how much more appealing is a life of pleasure over pain? One might confuse this expressed idealism with naivety, but it’s more like spotlighting light itself. As visual storytellers and enthusiasts, we collectively understand that hardships and blues are as certain as the gripping cold that befalls the Film Independent headquarters this time of year. It’s a matter of choice, and here we choose to make the most out of life. To confront it as well as to celebrate it, because there is much to celebrate and be thankful for. Hopefully, that even includes this carefully curated list of six on-theme films!
Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that people can get really anxious about. Whether it be the pressure of cooking, seeing family, or even figuring out if you want to sit this one out. In a way, it acts as a prelude to Christmas. A let’s see how this goes kind of energy. The reality is that life pulls us in all different directions, and holidays are an opportunity to gather. Still, if you need to take a break from the conversation, or if you’re looking for something to keep the festivities going, the following are some Thanksgiving films to keep on your radar. From delicious spreads of food you wish you could just reach in and grab to complicated relationships untangling before you (for better or worse), at least one of these picks is sure to be worthy of home entertainment.
Babette’s Feast (1987)
Director: Gabriel Axel
Original Writer: Karen Blixen
Screenwriters: Gabriel Axel, Annemarie Aaes
Cast: Stéphane Audren, Bodil Kijr, Birgitte Federspiel, Jarl Kulle
Why We Love It: Prepare to experience the finest French seven-course meal you’ve ever seen portrayed on-screen in Babette’s Feast. It’s a singular dinner scene that takes its time, allowing you to feel like you’re there seated at the table alongside the characters, and in the kitchen with the woman behind it all. Babette (Stéphane Audren) is a Frenchwoman who unexpectedly—or rather miraculously—finds herself traveling to a quaint, seaside village in Denmark to work as a maid for two elderly sisters. The sisters, Filippa (Bodil Kijr) and Martine (Birgitte Federspiel), and most of the village residents are of a puritanical faith, which will later cause some anxiety among them about the approaching feast that seems much too foreign. Themes of abstinence and indulgence collide, and shown in different ways throughout the film. Is there a world where these two opposing forces can coexist? Axel’s masterpiece seems to think so, and perhaps it can politely persuade suspicious minds.
Where to Watch: HBO Max, Criterion Channel, Prime Video
Avalon (1990)
Writer/Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, Joan Plowright, Elijah Wood
Why We Love It: An Independence Day film just as much as a Thanksgiving film, with more than one Thanksgiving scene that is. Avalon is a generational drama that strikes a wonderful balance of cinematic and candid dramatization. As heartbreaking as the plot can get, Levinson and co. bring that “movie magic” to the screen, drawing attention to the impressive sets, costumes, and cinematography. It’s a decade-spanning story that at times feels like an epic, capturing the life of a Polish-American family in Baltimore. The perspective bounces between Sam Krichinsky (Armin Mueller-Stahl), Jules Kaye (Aidan Quinn), and Michael Kaye (Elijah Wood)—three generations journeying through their own experiences together. Avalon is an immigrant story, an entrepreneurial story, and a coming-of-age story all at the same time. This careful blend of perspectives makes the Krichinsky family feel whole, even when times get rough. Did I mention a promising performance by a 9-year-old Elijah Wood? Ah, the pre-Frodo days.
Where to Watch: Prime Video
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
Director: Ang Lee
Writers: Ang Lee, James Schamus, Wang Huiling
Cast: Lung Sihung, Yang Kuei-mei, Wu Chien-Lien, Wang Yu-wen
Why We Love It: According to Master Chef Chu (Lung Sihung): eating, drinking, men, and women are “basic human desires,” an idea that is explored tenderly in Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman. Set in Taipei, the film follows Chu and his three adulting daughters Jia-Jen (Yang Kuei-mei), Jia-Chien (Wu Chien-Lien), and Jia-Ning (Wang Yu-wen) as they navigate change between their personal lives and home life. Although not directly a Thanksgiving film, they gather for dinner weekly over a full spread of Chinese haute cuisine. Food and family, arguably the top two ingredients that make Thanksgiving, are front and center in this film. It distinctly meditates on growing pains, how and what young adults do in an effort to grow out of the dependency on their parents. Life is frightening, but it changes no matter what, so when you know you know. Perhaps what makes it easier is achieving a level of transparency with loved ones that wasn’t there before, because then you have less in life to worry about. If you’re looking for a sweet, heartfelt story with cooking montages for the senses, this might be your pick.
Where to Watch: Tubi, Kanopy, Prime Video
The House of Yes (1997)
Director: Mark Waters
Original Writer: Wendy MacLeod
Screenwriter: Mark Waters
Cast: Parker Posey, Josh Hamilton, Tori Spelling, Freddie Prinze Jr.
Why We Love It: The House of Yes is probably the least family-friendly pick on this list, and that’s precisely part of its charm. The right amount and quality of food, family, and communion are the main factors that allow for a successful Thanksgiving. However, sometimes the right amount and quality of these pillars don’t exactly come together, and you’re left with unpleasantry and dysfunctionality. That happens to be the case with the Pascale family, specifically when Marty (Josh Hamilton) brings his new girlfriend Lesly (Tori Spelling) to meet his family on Thanksgiving. His sister is obsessed with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, so much so that she goes by Jackie-O (Parker Posey). Twisted, right? Well, yes, and Posey gives one of the best performances of her career. So, if you happen to be in the mood for a little schadenfreude, or if you just want something fun to keep the party going, take a chance on this overlooked dark comedy.
Where to Watch: YouTube Movies & TV, Prime Video
Soul Food (1997)
Writer/Director: George Tillman Jr.
Cast: Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long, Brandon Hammond
Why We Love It: Sunday family dinners at Mama Joe’s is an upheld tradition for the Joseph family, but when she falls ill her daughters Teri (Vanessa Williams), Maxine (Vivica A. Fox), and Robin (Nia Long) struggle to maintain the tradition. Fortunately for them, the youngest in the family—the next generation—Ahmad (Brandon Hammond) cares deeply for this family tradition, and is moved to do what he can to keep it alive. Soul Food celebrates family in all its beauty and chaos. Big families are tough to navigate sometimes, and the film shows that unabashedly. The weekly meals symbolize the importance of consistent connectivity, something that may not always be possible, but worth pursuing. Hence, the meaningful impact traditions can have. The food becomes its own character that just calls for your attention. Classic soul food dishes like fried chicken and macaroni and cheese never looked so good. Its all-star cast brings top-tier charisma and emotional weight to the table, and leaves you believing in a message of forgiveness, unity, and mindfulness just a little bit more.
Where to Watch: Apple TV, Prime Video
The New World (2005)
Writer/Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Colin Farrell, Q’orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale
Why We Love It: The New World may not depict the first Thanksgiving, but it depicts the appropriate faces, settings, and moods to help you imagine it. Much like Malick’s other works, it’s an undeniably breathtaking film that transports you to a less bulldozed and polluted North America. Every shot is composed with a poetic eye, immortalizing the unmatched beauty of the natural world. Another thing it immortalizes is the story of Amonute, better known as Pocahontas (Q’orianka Kilcher), and her relationships with John Smith (Colin Farrell) and John Rolfe (Christian Bale); an early piece of history that lacks credible documentation from all sides, often leading myth to precede truth. So, it’s no great surprise that creative liberty is taken, but the film still treats the story less as myth and more as something intensely human. An illuminating debut performance by Q’orianka Kilcher, paired with Malick’s direction brings nuance to a story that could have otherwise been wildly misinterpreted. The New World meditates on nature, cultural differences, great change, etc., all profound topics worthy of conversation throughout a day meant for giving thanks.
Where to Watch: Prime Video
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Bifurcating Character with Incisive and Witty Inner Monologue: a Masterclass with ‘Murderbot’ Co-Showrunners Paul Weitz and Spirit Awards Winner Chris Weitz
One of the most delightful series to premiere this summer, Murderbot is a witty, quirky sci-fi dramedy that explores thought-provoking themes under the guise of a breezy and surprisingly charming narrative about what it means to be human. The most unexpected element: it is told entirely through the lens (quite literally) of a security android — or “SecUnit” — that calls itself Murderbot. Adapted from Martha Wells’ science fiction books, The Murderbot Diaries, the Apple TV series is written and directed by brothers and Oscar nominees for About a Boy, Chris and Paul Weitz. Chris is also a Spirit Awards winner for the Lulu Wang-directed Chinese family drama, The Farewell.
Since SecUnits issued by the Corporation Rim (a group of mega-corporations ruling the galaxy in the distant future) are sentient, complete obedience to human orders is guaranteed by the “governor module” in each unit. However, Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård, who nabbed an Emmy for his intricate and chilling performance in the HBO series, Big Little Lies), figures out how to disable its module to gain autonomy. “Murderbot is sentient from the get-go — it’s basically a slavery narrative. It’s important to Martha that Murderbot was always sentient,” Chris says of the close collaboration with consulting producer, Wells. “All the SecUnits are under human control. They can think for themselves but can’t act for themselves. So, they experience this torture of being at the disposal of others.” In addition to exploring themes of humanity and free will, the series also calls into question the issue of personhood, as Paul notes: “To what degree are we going to grant personhood to non-human intelligence?”
A very timely exploration of what a future permeated by AI might look like, Murderbot wisely subverts the tropes by discarding the robot killing machine stereotype. “The world that Martha lays out is dismal in terms of the extraction of labor and the abuse of sentient constructs. The dystopian angle has been done really well, there’s no point in trying to do that. So, we wanted to take a different approach,” Chris explains, adding that “One thing we liked about Martha’s books was that it wasn’t a story about an AI that wants to be like human or to dominate humans. It’s about a different kind of person and what that person wants to do and how they figure it out.” Paul concurs: “On the one end, we have Pinocchio, a non-human thing that wants to be human, and we have the Terminator, which wants to kill everybody. But Murderbot is a third variation.” In fact, it does not yearn to be human at all, let alone control or destroy humanity. “We tend to underestimate how half-assed everything is in reality. Some of the interactions with chatbots now displays utter incompetence and weirdness, so I think AI is going to have neuroses, just like humans,” adds Paul.
Murderbot’s next assignment is to protect a group of hippie scientists from an egalitarian society on an expedition to a hostile planet plagued by flesh-eating centipede creatures and other threats. Led by terraforming expert Dr. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), the crew includes wormhole scientist Ratthi (Akshay Khanna) and augmented human, Gurathin (David Dastmalchian), who is immediately suspicious of their SecUnit. Since Murderbot’s newfound autonomy has to remain a secret — or it risks being melted down for spare parts — it pretends to be unresponsive when people bully or torture it in myriad ways. It’s no wonder that it has developed a disdain for humans, which we learn through its inner monologue. “I think everybody has an internal curmudgeon that we let out in different degrees. Being skeptical about humans is something that we all share,” Paul says.
Skarsgård’s deadpan delivery of Murderbot’s snarky inner monologue through frequent voiceover narration brilliantly bifurcates the character: the stoic and expressionless SecUnit on-screen is juxtaposed against its honest and amusing opinions about how stupid, inefficient, and downright annoying humans can be. “A lot of that was already in Martha’s novella and we added some ad lib. When you adapt a novel in first-person narrative, you’re effectively listening to voiceover the entire time, but it’s a problem when you get to the screen. We tried to use it to explain things as little as possible, but more as a contrast. There’s comic possibility when a character shows no emotion or reaction whatsoever, but is actually feeling things deeply inside,” Chris explains. “I think we were a little less terrified of voiceover after About a Boy, which has dual voiceovers [for each of the male leads],” Paul adds.
Although much of the inner monologue was in the script, refinements were needed in post when Skarsgård — who pulls double duty as an EP — recorded additional lines over a few months. “We recorded with him in Stockholm, New York, and Los Angeles, and he would try 100 to 200 versions of a line. It’s tricky when voiceover is timed with what’s being revealed [on-screen]. You can’t just have somebody reading it off while the other actors pause until they can say their line. Sometimes we were just guessing how long something would take,” Paul shares. “That kind of led to some of our signature complaints of short episodes,” Chris reveals, referring to the 22-25-minute episodes. “The inner monologue takes up a lot of space on the page. Sometimes we were actually worried that episodes could be too long.”
While Murderbot’s utter lack of sense of humor provides much of the visual comedy, its inner monologue creates serendipitous moments of humor, empathy, wit, and compassion when paired with its caustic views and exasperated dismay at human behavior. “By that point, we had the advantage of looking back on the whole series. Sometimes we got another shot at the tone with the vocal cadence. Recording dialog is a fiddly thing — the way someone sounds one day can be entirely different from another,” Chris points out.
In some ways, the Swedish actor with supermodel good looks may not be the most straightforward choice for the asexual, androgenous Murderbot. But in portraying the hilariously grumpy and battle-weary SecUnit, Skarsgård telegraphs every sinew of emotion with the slightest of micro-expressions, delivering a nuanced and stirring — in several instances, even heartbreaking — performance. “The story has such fragility and tenderness to it,” the actor recalls recently during a post-screening Q&A. As Chris reveals, they “didn’t have lengthy conversations about how he would play it ahead of time,” adding that: “We really trusted what Alexander would to bring to it. But the world that Murderbot was reacting to had to be right in order to evoke the appropriate responses from him. So, we assembled the best cast around him.”
“There are two performances going on simultaneously: what Murderbot is showing to the world versus the internal monologue. After we started shooting, we realized the internal monologue could be very expressive because Alex was playing the on-screen stuff so close to the vest,” Paul says of Skarsgård’s restrained on-screen performance as a contrast against the android’s more emphatic, sardonic private thoughts. Murderbot is normally treated as a piece of equipment or otherwise like garbage. So, when Mensah’s touchy-feely team treats it with warmth and kindness, it is appalled and confused at first, but eventually, it learns to care for them as well. “That was the big decision, both in terms of Alex’s performance and Murderbot’s affection for the crew. Alex was very keen to hold off on giving away that Murderbot really cares about them. And he was right — it helped create tension through the series,” Paul reveals of one of the few changes in an adaptation that hews closely to the books. “We didn’t take anything out of the book, but added a few, including the character Leebeebee (Anne Konkle), to reboot some tension and let Murderbot do something that horrified people in the middle of the season and made them suspicious of it again.”
Constructed from lab-grown organic parts with enhanced inorganic materials, Murderbot was built without socially-curated behavioral norms or a morality framework. However, as Mensah and Raathi insist on treating it as part of the team, it soon exhibits behaviors arguably more human than what we’ve seen from some people — even sacrificing itself more than once to save them — propelling the notion that sentient beings are inherently good. “AI systems or large language models (“LLM”) feed on vast troves of information produced by humanity and are trained by humans. So, they act according to what they think humans might do — they’re made from us. People are basically good, it’s those who are unwell who commit acts that we consider evil,” Chris shares. Later in the series, Gurathin — who sees Murderbot as a threat — reveals that it might have massacred dozens of people on a recent mission. Once exposed, Murderbot is mortified and ashamed. “It’s privacy has been violated, its sense of dignity and inviolability has been trespassed on. That’s true for all kinds of people and creatures,” Chris notes. “There’s shame on a cellular level that comes with being human. And while Murderbot is not human, it does have organic flesh,” Paul adds.
At one point, Murderbot is captured by another security unit from a rival team of explorers, which forcibly inserts a “combat override module” to force it to kill Mensah’s team. To save them, Murderbot tries to kill itself instead. “We didn’t want it to be too sentimental or self-sacrificial. Murderbot was killing itself out of spite — it’s not going to let someone else impose their will and frame it as a rogue SecUnit that killed its clients because it’s evil. It refuses to be defined by others,” Chris reveals, suggesting that androids inherently know right from wrong. “In that moment, it says ‘Well, f*ck that.’ in the voiceover,” Paul adds. “It’s also about the dignity of work. Murderbot is pretty good at protecting people, that’s one of the things that define it as a person.”
Paul thinks that “it’s also a bit about the value of laziness,” which is consistent with what Skarsgård has jokingly said on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert: “There’s very little murder on the show, it’s mostly procrastinating bot.” Paul recalls in the pilot, where Murderbot fantasizes about killing the whole crew. “But it’s like, ‘Then what do I do?’ It would just be stuck here. What’s the point of killing all these people?” He explains Murderbot’s glum persistence in continuing to execute its duties thusly: “It’s like that Samuel Beckett line, ‘I can’t go on, I’ll go on.’ It takes a certain amount of sicko energy to really want to hurt people.” Fortunately for Mensah & Co, Murderbot finds it much easier to simply binge-watch television instead!
One of Murderbot’s most endearing and relatable qualities is its addiction to soap operas: as soon as it gained autonomy, it downloaded and obsessively watches 7,000-plus hours of trash TV and is often annoyed when duty calls. Its favorite is a hysterical Star Trek parody called The Rise & Fall of Santuary Moon. Do what you will to Murderbot, but never criticize the show in its presence! One of the most amusing lines comes from Ratthi, who tries to be buddies with Murderbot (whom he affectionately calls “Sec-y”). Skeptical that an android could be so drawn to any show, he quizzes it about a deep cut of the show, asking if it has watched the episode “where the colony’s solicitor killed the terraforming supervisor who was the secondary donor for her implanted baby?” As Chris recalls, “that line was longer than in the book, but super funny. And Alex added in a reference to a friend of his for bookkeeper Wittenmark.” Since it is perplexed by human emotions and finds eye contact and any kind of physical intimacy revolting, it watches soap operas to learn how to navigate human emotions: “All the emotions are on the surface, that’s partly what draws Murderbot to Sanctuary Moon,” says Paul.
[Warning: spoilers ahead] After Murderbot almost dies trying to save Mensah, it risks being melted down and its memories erased. Fortunately, Gurathin comes through with a Hail Mary stunt before the team purchases its freedom from the Corporation Rim. But when it decides to venture out on its own to figure out what it wants to be, Gurathin understands why it needs to leave the nest to chart a new course. “In the book, Murderbot doesn’t have a final moment with anybody, let alone the person who’s been a thorn in its side. So that seemed like a fun, dramatic opportunity, while still delivering a beautiful ending for Murderbot to ride off into the sunset,” Chris says of the bittersweet and touching ending. “We asked Martha if it was okay to add some details to Gurathin’s history about his addiction, and she was up for it. Some of it was informed by David’s own history. He and Murderbot have another thing in common: it’s hard for them to express themselves emotionally and to trust people,” Paul reveals.
When it came to the ending, “it was really important for Murderbot to become part of a family. But that doesn’t mean the best ending is for it to stay there. There’s an ambiguous and melancholic tone to it,” Paul says. As far as where Season Two might take us, “Its favorite human is Mensah, so she would most likely be the one to draw Murderbot back into the fold. Its lingering connection to Mensah and the people it left behind will come into play. Eventually, it’s about whether it has learned enough about itself to decide what home would look like and who it wants to be, “Chris predicts of our favorite SecUnit’s nascent journey in self-discovery.
Produced by Paramount Television Studios, all 10 episodes of Murderbot are streaming on Apple TV.
Want to vote for the winners in the 2026 Spirit Awards? Join Film Independent today! Before you know it, you’ll be knee-deep in screeners and attending in-person screenings, special events, workshops, and more. The 2026 Spirit Award nominations will be announced on December 3.
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[Header image: Alexander Skarsgård in “Murderbot,” now streaming on Apple TV.]
Remembering Film Independent President Josh Welsh on His Birthday
Edward Joshua Welsh
November 19, 1962 – December 31, 2024
Edward Joshua Welsh – or “Josh” as he was known to his family and friends – is in many ways impossible to describe, but if one were to attempt the impossible, they might say he was “the most enthusiastic connoisseur of existential doom” they have ever met. They might say he was a passionate champion of independent films, accomplished alt-country musician, self-taught kitchen magician, exuberant ham, or doting dog walker, not to mention loving husband, father, brother, uncle and friend. They would likely say he was an incredibly bright, funny, warm, thoughtful, charismatic, humble man who devoted the entirety of his immense heart and spirit to his love of pondering, people, and the arts.
Josh Welsh passed away peacefully in his Glendale home on New Years Eve, 2024, in the company of his wife, Bonnie Gavel, and daughter, Isla Welsh. He was 62. Over the past five years, Josh battled cancer with the grace and discipline of a dancer. In the face of frightening uncertainty, he remained calm and optimistic. There were always new treatments, one after the next. Some were rougher than others. Welsh refused to be slowed down. His eyes always shone. He baffled his medical staff by the manner in which every finish line they drew was more in sand than concrete. He kept beating the odds, kept reaching the next landmark. Cancer fought Josh, not the other way around. He continued his work as President of Film Independent up until the day he died, never allowing his passion to falter. His humor, playfully bleak long before the cancer, was always present. Even at the end, Josh approached the uncertainty with an almost studious curiosity to the utmost form of personal devastation. He looked ahead towards the terrifying unknown with eyes wide open, adopting a stance of bewilderingly brave vulnerability and authenticity. His primary concern about the afterlife, second only to whether or not it exists, was “will there be music?”
If Josh was at ease in the rambunctious noise of the creative process, it might be because he grew up in a loud Irish Catholic family in the suburbs of Washington D.C. He was welcomed to the world on November 19, 1962 at Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington D.C., the last of nine highly creative children (of varying temperaments and dispositions towards making trouble) born to Philip and Marylin Welsh. Welsh’s mother, Marilyn Kirby Welsh, was fierce and formidable, a combination of joy and rage. His father, Philip Flahavin Welsh – reserved and distant but, quietly, just as definite – worked as an attorney for the Association of American Railroads. Among the brothers and sisters there was much mayhem, fighting and love. As the baby, Josh was offered a less complicated form of love from the family; a rare warmth he was able to stoke by being naturally hilarious, with an insatiable appetite for the limelight. He and his sister Liz staged what was known as “The Eddy and Betty Show,” and he was known to delay his older brothers and their friends from their weekend plans with solo improvisational performances – not that they minded the front row seats. When Steve Martin released his Wild and Crazy Guy comedy album, Josh had it memorized in no time flat. His performance, subjectively speaking, was much funnier than Martin’s. “Josh had me in stitches; I could not stand,” recalled one family friend. “The loss of anyone so insanely creative is a loss to the entire world in such dire need of even a drop of more pure humor.”
Josh took up the guitar when he was a teenager and began an ongoing back and forth with his oldest brother and gifted poet, Philip, Jr., who would send Josh poems with the attached brotherly challenge of “I bet you can’t turn THIS one into a song.” Josh always did, and this ongoing battle of pen and guitar would later evolve into Meatyard, an alt-country musical powerhouse. Meatyard featured a wide variety of band members over the years, but at its core was Josh, Philip (even posthumously), and his nephew Rupert Sandes. Meatyard specialized in meandering melancholic meditations on death, longing and itches that couldn’t be scratched. Josh could make you cry, but he could also growl, howl and slash with genuine punk and rockabilly abandon, laughing all the while at the wonderful, ridiculous audacity of it.
Josh was spared the straitjacket Catholic School education of his siblings. In adult life, he would ultimately veer away from his Catholic upbringing, much to his father’s dismay, but would retain a quasi-eucharistic enthusiasm for donuts, which the Welsh family feasted upon en masse after Sunday mass. Despite his misgivings about Catholicism, Josh was inherently if skeptically spiritual.
In 1980, Josh enrolled at Kenyon College in Ohio, where he met his first wife, Jenny Siegenthaler. He played gigs at a place called Pirate’s Cove. It was, according to one lifelong friend, “musical mayhem” – rough around the edges and full of drive. Despite his punkish inclinations, Josh was much moved by the slithery velvet voice of Al Green, and the syncopated minimalism of his arrangements. For two years, Josh worked as the record buyer for the Kenyon Bookstore. During his regime, Rolling Stone named the bookstore the best college bookstore in the country, an honor largely credited to their record collection.
Josh’s defining characteristic of being an “avid ponderer” carried him through the earning of his PhD in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University in 1994. Despite his love of pondering, Josh had second thoughts about the academic life almost immediately. Once he got his PhD, he liked to joke he’d become a truck driver. Misgivings aside, Josh completed his education with said PhD and received special recognition for the defense of his dissertation. He accepted a temporary teaching position at Swarthmore College and started taking acting classes after finishing his degree. After a year of teaching, Josh moved to Los Angeles, CA, to pursue a career in film. While driving from the East Coast to Los Angeles, he recounted, he never once thought about philosophy.
Upon moving to Los Angeles, Josh signed up for more acting classes. He hit the audition circuit, and landed a few roles in films that, for better or for worse, did not make their mark on the silver screen. In 1996, Josh signed up as a volunteer for IFP West, the precursor to what would later become Film Independent – a nonprofit that aims to make film making accessible to those with passion and talent, regardless of social barriers or nepotistic disadvantage. Josh found a very natural place within the organization. He resonated with its cause and his natural abilities served as a highly effective catalyst for its mission. He would serve as President of Film Independent for 12 years, after holding various leadership positions during the preceding 18 years. As President, Josh functioned as incubator-in-chief for successive waves of eager new storytellers, helping to forge a path forward for so many aspiring filmmakers who might otherwise have been left at a dead end. For Josh, the story was second only to the storyteller, to the extent they were differentiable at all. It was his mission to provide emerging artists with the skills needed in screenwriting, directing, acting and producing, to get their stories out there.
Josh’s singular genius, however, was getting people to believe they had stories to tell, and that they were the ones to tell them. He didn’t give rah-rah speeches; he didn’t bang tables. Instead, he brought to bear a measured critical intelligence. But he also radiated an irrepressible excitement, his improbably bright blue eyes perpetually on the verge of astonishment. Artists and co-workers who worked with him over the years didn’t just feel seen; they were seen. He greeted Film Independent co-workers by first and last name, punctuated always with a hearty exclamation mark. He was hands on with every person at every level of the organization. Even when returning from cancer treatment, Josh would stop to talk to people on his way back to his office, offering an eager line of inquiry regarding their work and most recent projects. He was genuinely curious. Film Independent wasn’t “work” for Josh, although it was objectively hard work – it was his passion.
Just after the mass computer mayhem of Y2K, he would meet Bonnie Gavel, with whom he made a connection. He extended an invitation to a Halloween party where he confessed to a crush on her, and the two eventually exchanged wedding vows on Halloween 2004 in New Orleans. They welcomed a daughter, Isla June Welsh, into the world on July 4, 2006. They purchased their home in Glendale, CA together, where Josh would spend the rest of his life. Josh had always been a wonderful brother, son and uncle – with his wife and daughter that dedication was extended and multiplied. Josh was absolutely over the moon with his daughter, Isla, and over the years photographed many Saturday adventures together. Another valuable quality that he brought to his family life was his rare ability to laugh at himself, as Bonnie Gavel recalls. She fondly remembers her husband as a warm, loving man who didn’t judge people on trivial matters and saw no one as less than himself despite his success. He was far more focused on drawing connections than splitting hairs, Bonnie remembers, citing a quote from Josh who was talking in his sleep at the time: “I don’t care about differences between people.” He truly didn’t. Through good times and bad, with Josh there was always love and humor – these were nonnegotiable.
His efforts to make a career in film a reality for people who might not otherwise have an avenue towards it followed the pattern of his general radiance during his long career at Film Independent. As Bonnie put it, “he loved people and he loved creativity.” In life he immersed himself in both. He was loved by the people who shared his love of creativity and worked alongside him to broaden accessibility to the same. In the aftermath of his passing, he has been honored publicly and privately by those he worked with day-to-day because he was truly seen for who he was, what he was, and what both of those factors offered to aspiring filmmakers, and people and creativity at large. Brenda Robinson, Film Independent’s acting President, who has long worked and walked alongside Josh, summed it up: “Josh is a visionary of the type that comes along once in a lifetime. We want his work and impact to continue on because he is a great leader. He is a person of exceptional character. I speak about him very deliberately in the present tense, because he’s still here. We will feel his spirit in the programs he created and the lives of filmmakers he impacted, always and in all ways. Josh is only absent in the body, but the spirit of who Josh is and what he means to this community – that is forever.” Within his professional role of occupying the spotlight well enough to offer it to others, and behind each door he helped to open for someone without a key of their own, he is indeed very much “still here.”
Josh Welsh is survived by his wife, Bonnie Gavel; his daughter, Isla June Welsh; brothers Nick and Joseph Welsh; his sisters Liz and Monica Welsh; his nieces and nephews including Rupert Sandes of Meatyard, Anna Rose, Isaac, Rachael, Bridgette, Thomas, Liam, Caela, Samuel, Lulu, and Jacob; and in-laws Amy Brodigan, Roger Sandes, Marie Smeriglio, Cindy Welsh and Scott Gavel, and Robert Heckman. He will be forever loved, forever “here” in the lives he changed and stories that accredit their utterance to him – and if whatever halls he has found access to did not have music before, we can be certain they do now.
For over 40 years, Film Independent has helped filmmakers get their projects made and seen. The nonprofit organization’s core mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling and support a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision.
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Fast Track Returns with 15 Projects and 34 Filmmakers Meeting Face-to-Face with Industry Heavyweights PLUS: $80k in Grants
Fast track is back for its 23rd year, and it’s rare that you see so many Hollywood decision makers all in one place. Besides the Oscars. And Sundance. Oh, Cannes too. The Spirits…. Never mind. What is unique is that these industry heavyweights are all in one place to make indie film happen. Over three days, 15 different filmmaking teams will meet with a wide range of financiers, production companies, reps and other industry professionals as part of a film-financing market, and hopefully take their projects to the next level.
On top of that, we’re awarding $80,000 through three grants, the Sloan Fast Track Grant and Sloan Distribution Grant for films with science and tech themes at their core, and the MPAC®️ Hollywood Bureau Fellowship for a filmmaker that identifies as Muslim American.
“We’re thrilled to welcome this year’s Fast Track participants, whose bold mix of fiction and nonfiction projects push creative boundaries and reflect the diverse voices shaping contemporary cinema,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs. “Bringing these visionary filmmakers together with key industry leaders at the finance market is an exciting opportunity to help them secure the support needed to bring their stories to life,” added Daniel Cardone, Senior Manager of Nonfiction Programs and Fiscal Sponsorship.
Here are the 15 hand-picked projects that are getting face time with some of the biggest players in Hollywood this week–
FICTION TRACK:
All in My Family
Writer/Director: Hao Wu
Producer: Lucia Liu
Logline: When a struggling Taiwanese American documentary filmmaker decides to have a baby with his boyfriend through surrogacy, the ensuing chaos forces him to navigate family acceptance, cultural expectations and relationship challenges.
Bangbang Teahouse
Writer/Director: Courtney Loo
Producers: Rachael Fung, David Karp, Mikey Schwartz-Wright
Logline: Mimi & Hayley, the two parts of famed Chinese American music duo Bangbang, find their professional and romantic relationship at a crossroads; everything they’ve built precariously teeters with their new album. Over the course of 48 frenetic hours in New York City, they’ll stop at nothing as they desperately convince their label to release it.
Best Man
Director: Tyler Rabinowitz
Producer: Nico Blanco
Logline: Years after being friend-dumped for being gay, a millennial groom-to-be’s picture-perfect Boston life unravels when his chaotic ex-best friend from high school reenters his life — newly out and annoyingly hot.
But We Slept Soundly
Writer/Director: Jake Kolton
Producer: Myriam Schroeter
Logline: A bourgeois Brooklynite’s comfortable reality unravels when he begins to suspect his husband is responsible for a hit and run.
Gone By Morning
Writer/Director: Diego Ongaro
Producer: Rob Cristiano
Logline: When Lucy, a free-spirited dancer, returns home to her family’s Montana horse ranch, she’s forced to reckon with the life she built on her own and the one she thought she left behind.
Killing Jar
Writer/Director: Etzu Shaw
Producer: Galt Niederhoffer
Logline: Burdened by guilt after her mother’s abrupt death, an insect researcher decides to undertake her own forensic entomology investigation to uncover the truth.
Killing Jar is also the recipient of Sloan Fast Track Grant, a $20,000 grant to support the production of a project exploring themes of science and technology or characters engaging with science and technology in engaging and innovative ways.)
Not My Name
Writer/Director: Juan Paulo Laserna
Producer: Valeria Contreras
Logline: In 1996 Colombia, a family travels under false identities to visit their dying patriarch. As fear and deceit consume them, ten-year-old Álvaro drifts toward the darkness they hoped to escape.
The Umbra
Writer/Director: Rider Strong
Producers: Alexandra Barreto, Taylor Feltner
Logline: When his partner Orion commits suicide, David Alturo ventures deep into the redwoods to confront Orion’s hermit father. But soon, the men work together to complete Orion’s final, mysterious invention…
When the River Split Open
Writer/Director: Jess X. Snow
Producer: Petrus van Staden
Logline: On an overdue visit to their ancestral land, an impulsive Chinese American escapes their over-protective maternal family to search for their estranged father—whose disappearance is entwined with the extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin.
With Your Permission
Writer/Director: Sahar Jahani
Producer: Ashim Ahuja
Logline: With Your Permission is about three Iranian American Muslim sisters navigating their relationship to intimacy when they discover their sixty-year-old, widowed mother is getting remarried, forcing them to re- examine everything they thought they knew about love, family and forgiveness.
The MPAC®️ Hollywood Bureau Fellowship, a $10,000 grant awarded to a filmmaker who identifies as American Muslim, will go to Sahar Jahani for With Your Permission.
DOCUMENTARY TRACK:
Counted
Co-Director/Producer: Erica Tanamachi
Co-Director/Director of Photography/Producer: Joseph East
Producer: Evan Mascagni
Logline: Counted follows Southern activists as they turn the trauma of pregnancy in prison into a movement to end prison birth and transform a broken system.
*holds you tight*
Director/Producer: Jane M. Wagner
Producer: Joe Weil
Logline: A lonely night watchman develops a relationship with an AI chatbot, transforming his worldview and challenging his perception of identity and reality.
Love and Justice: The Arlene Carmen Story
Directors/Producers: Linda Goldstein Knowlton, Tessa Carmen DeRoy
Logline: Arlene Carmen was the Administrator of Judson Memorial Church from 1967 to 1994. In partnership with Reverend Howard Moody she ran the multi-denominational Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion which connected 500,000 women to safe abortion care, prior to Roe V. Wade; created a ministry for street walking prostitutes; and distributed experimental treatments to early AIDS patients from the church garden room. Much of their work was illegal.
Symphony of Silence
Director: Julianne Sato-Parker
Producer: Bridie Bischoff
Logline: Symphony of Silence is a character-driven feature documentary about two people brought together by the belief that listening has the power to change the world.
The Quiet Part
Director: Rachel Lauren Mueller
Producer: Ariel Tilson
Logline: When a pagan white supremacist group takes root in a quiet American farming town, it ignites an intense struggle over who has the right to belong.
And just to show we weren’t kidding about the amount of Industry participants, the list includes: 30WEST, 3Pas Studios, ABL Casting / Independent, American Cinematheque, Anonymous Content, Austin Film Festival, Bleecker Street, Blumhouse Productions, Book of Shadows, CAA, Cinephil, Cinetic Media, Closer Media, Concordia, Concourse Media, Construction Films, David Magdael & Associates, Inc, DocList, Duplass Brothers, Entertainment 360, EverWonder Studio, Giant Leap Media Ventures, Giant Pictures, Hulu / The Walt Disney Company, Hyde Park Entertainment, IDA, Impact Partners, Independent Artist Group, Jigsaw Productions, Kennedy Marshall, Kinema, Ley Line, Lit Entertainment, Luz Films, MACRO, Magnolia Pictures, Marginal Mediaworks, Monkeypaw Productions, National Geographic, NEON, Organic, Oxbelly, Park Pictures, Pinky Promise, Pressman Films, Roadside Attractions, Saturnia Film, Searchlight Pictures, SFFILM, ShivHans Pictures, Skye Films Ltd, Solidarity Media Network, Sons of Rigor, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Storm City Films, Sundance, Tango Entertainment, The Film Collaborative, The Film Sales Company, Topic Studios, Tribeca Festival, Tribeca Studios, Unapologetic Projects, Unnecessary Pictures, Verve Ventures, Visit Films, Wavelength, WME, Wonder Project, Words & Pictures and XYZ Films.
Previous Fast Track projects include 2025 Berlinale winner for Best Documentary Holding Liat from Brandon and Lance Kramer; Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl, co-written, edited and produced by Sean Baker, which premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival; Bing Liu’s Academy Award-nominated Minding the Gap produced by Diane Quon; Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt produced by Maria Altamirano, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by A24. Other notable filmmakers who have participated in the program include Ana Lily Amirpour, Sean Baker, James Ponsoldt, Tina Mabry, Lana Wilson and Chloé Zhao.
Film Independent helps creative voices advance new work and builds awareness and community around artist-driven visual storytelling. Film Independent Members watch nominees and vote for the winners of the Spirit Awards. To become a Member of Film Independent and make your vote count for next year’s 41th Annual Spirit Awards, just click here. To support our mission with a donation, click here.
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INTERVIEW: ‘Natchez’ Director Suzannah Herbert on the Modern South & Her Documentary Story Lab Journey
Applications for the Film Independent Documentary Story Lab are now open. The deadline for non-Members is December 15th, while Film Independent Members have until January 5th.
Director Suzannah Herbert grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. The public schools she went to there never taught her the infamous ‘Lost Cause’ narrative. The narrative frames the Confederacy as a noble cause that met a tragic end and was taught in Southern schools for decades after the Civil War.
While the education system is in the process of devolving, remnants of the Confederacy and antebellum era are still pervasive throughout the South. Herbert wanted to explore how that pervasive myth still weighs on the South’s collective psyche, and found the antebellum tourist capital, Natchez, Mississippi, a perfect microcosm. The city was changing, and struggling with how and if it wanted to evolve.
We spoke with Herbert about those explorations in her upcoming documentary Natchez, and how the film was shaped by the Film Independent Documentary Story Lab.
Tell me about the genesis of this film and your connection to Natchez.
Growing up in the South, the ideas of the Confederacy, and the mythology around the Civil War, it’s just everywhere, and you can’t help but be exposed to it. It was something that I was always wondering about.
In 2017, I was invited to a wedding on a plantation and was struck by how people, to this day, are still using sites for their profit, their enjoyment, their entertainment. I wanted to question that and try to understand it in a film. I started researching and reading a lot about the Civil War era, the antebellum era, the times during slavery.
Then I went on a road trip with my mom from Memphis down to Louisiana, to River Road, where there’s a lot of plantations along the Mississippi River. And I just started taking a lot of tours, and visiting historic sites and plantations, and talking to friends, and friends of friends, and they all told me to go to Natchez.
I had never been to Natchez. It was a place that was very well preserved in terms of antebellum structures. For the past hundred years, the white homeowners have been selling the myths of the Old South during ‘Pilgrimage,’ a time when they open their homes to the public for tours.
But now there are people in Natchez who are trying to do the work to break that down, and to tell a more truthful history and talk about slavery, to tell the truth. The film shows us both of those perspectives, and the many ways in which history is told there.
It’s a film about a town, and that involves a lot of different people. Can you tell me about choosing who to feature, and if that changed during the process of filming?
We had friends of friends in Natchez. I met Tracy, the Southern Belle in the blue dress, at a cocktail party. She was just so warm, interesting, and open. She didn’t grow up in this world. She grew up poor in Louisiana on a farm and when she put the dress on, it made her feel like she belonged to a Southern aristocracy. When she put the dress on, it made her feel like she belonged.
Then I went to the visitor center just to get brochures, and meet people, and Rev was there. He recruited me onto his tour van, just like he recruits the women in the film onto his van. And I was blown away by the tour and the history that he was telling. And I knew immediately that, wow, this person is incredible and his work needs to be captured.
I want to talk to you about some of the aesthetic with both the music and the cinematography. They create this dreamy quality that’s both beautiful and accentuates the uncomfortableness. Tell me about the thought process for both of those.
Noah Collier shot the film, and we had conversations early on about how to show the beauty of Natchez and the horror, the feeling of the place. We wanted to draw people in, just like the town does, through the beauty, but then slowly peel back the layers of this complicated, fraught history and place.
We looked at a lot of fiction and narrative films like Gone with the Wind, White Lotus, Night of the Living Dead, and Nashville,. We wanted to make an antidote to Gone with the Wind.
We shot everything on a tripod to make it feel more like a performance and more like a narrative film. We shot with vintage prime lenses to harken back to the 60s when Pilgrimage was in its heyday.
We wanted the film to be, at first, like a fantasy. But then that fantasy slowly turns into something more deep and sinister when the reality of the history is revealed through the tours and through the participants. So that’s when we started to employ tilted angles a bit, as the reality surfaces..
James Newberry was our composer. And he is from Georgia, so he totally got the subtleties and the nuances of the film and how we were trying to subvert narratives, stereotypes, and clichés about the South and about Southerners. That was really important for us.
James also took a lot of risk, and he does cool, weird things and does them in a really beautiful way. We both wanted the music to feel like something is slightly amiss but not have it overtly lead you in any direction.
I wanted to know about getting the community comfortable with you. You’re coming into their homes with a camera, and you’re going to put their town out into the world. Did you get met with some skepticism?
I spent a lot of time in Natchez without a camera so before we started filming. I think that the white community saw themselves in me, and so that made people feel pretty comfortable.
I filmed for 75 days. Noah Collier, my cinematographer, and I were there for many, many weeks. And I think that’s what it took in order to get the intimacy of those moments.
It was never my intention to make a hit piece about the South, because I love the South, in spite of all of its complications. When you love something, and when it’s home, you try to make it better. My hope was with this film is that it raises questions,starts dialogue, and elicits introspection for people.
Where were you with the film when you applied for the Documentary Story Lab, and what made you want to apply to it?
When I applied, we were pretty far through production. At that point we had shot the vast majority of our days, and we were gearing up for the edit. I knew that the Lab would be an essential time to have mentors and fellow peers help me realize the story.
At the beginning of an edit, when you shot so many hours and days, you just have a mountain of footage to wrap your head around. With the people that Film Independent would bring together, it seemed like an invaluable opportunity, and it was.
Over the course of doing the lab, did some of the ideas for the film change? How did the film look different from the beginning to the end?
When the lab begins, you all send your rough cut and ours was a two-and-a-half-hour assembly. It was incredibly helpful to see, in discussing it with everyone, what resonated and what I knew we could not get rid of because of the group’s response.
And I think another thing that was affirming was that I was worried that we had too many characters. I remember people unanimously being like, no, this will work, you need to just figure out how to balance it all, but do not cut people. That kind of gave me the confidence to trust my gut in that regard and not whittle it down, but instead embrace the complexity that each person brought to the tableau of the film.
For someone applying to the lab next year, what advice would you give to them? Sort of, like, on their application?
I was pleasantly surprised at the Lab with just how much it felt like going back to school. When was the last time I got to learn for a week and listen to experts in the field?
It was beautiful to be in this environment where I had the permission to learn and to do it alongside other incredible filmmakers who I’m still in touch with. So I would just tell someone to embrace this time, because it’s very rare and special.
Natchez will have it’s LA premier in February 2026.
Applications for the Film Independent Documentary Story Lab are now open. The deadline for non-Members is December 15th, while Film Independent Members have until January 5th.
Film Independent Artist Development promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here.
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Money Matters Part II: Talking Financing at This Year’s Forum
Last week, we broke down finance tips from filmmakers and executives who shared their experience and know-how at this year’s Forum. The thing is that there was so much good information at the two-day event, that we couldn’t fit it all into just one post.
We’re back this week to wrap up sharing all the different ways our panelists recommended to get your project financed. We’re featuring insights from our Producers’ Roundtable, Indie TV talk and some LA specific advice from the Home Grown panel.
Producers at the Table: Independent Producing in Uncertain Times
The producers at this year’s table had a lot to say about what types of films they are looking to make, and what films work for the marketplace right now. Hartbeat’s Aaron Edmonds told moderator Gita Pullapilly (Writer/Director, Queenpins, Beneath the Harvest Sky) that his company looks for humor, heart and heat, with heat being something in the zeitgeist that people can get excited about. Producer Sev Ohanian (Sinners) brought his own metric for what he thinks can be a successful project: P.U.G.S. The acronym stands for Propulsive, Unique, Genre-blending, and Surprising. He thinks audiences more than ever are smart and want something they’ve never seen before. Producer Lauren Mann (Joyland) talked about the importance of being both realistic, budget-wise, and creatively ambitious. She likes filmmakers that can make budgetary concessions and still make an exciting project and talked about how Daniels were a perfect example of that when they brought Swiss Army Man to her.
Everyone talked about the difficulty of being able to shoot in the US right now. Lila Yacoub (Ladybird) said that many studios and financiers aren’t willing to shoot in the States when things like cost of living and labor costs are cheaper in Europe. Ryan Zacarias, producer of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, talked about a project he’s currently making in Hungary, and said the budget was 5-times less than it would have been if it was shot stateside.
Foreign presales were another topic that the panel acknowledged was difficult. More and more, the foreign market isn’t looking for the same stars as the US is, and that can make creative decisions more difficult. Both Edmonds and Zacarias spoke about making projects without foreign presales because they decided that having the right cast was more important.
Ohanian talked about how different the market is today vs. pre-Covid. Artistic projects aren’t getting picked up as much from festivals, and budgets are getting extremely tight. Therefore, he recommended leaning into something that an audience already wants, like genre, to make a project more appealing to buyers. Others like Yacoub still encouraged filmmakers to still swing for the fences but be smart about it. “I encourage you guys to still make those art films because I love them and I think there’s an audience for them. But you really do have to keep it as lean as possible.”
Home Grown: Spotlight on L.A.
The Home Grown panel, moderated by Half Initiative’s Shari Page, started with an acknowledgement that shooting in LA is extremely tough at the moment. When producer Alex Orlovsky was making Lurker, the team didn’t expect a tax-credit and financed as if they weren’t going to get one. The things that made shooting in LA make sense were that it was such an LA focused story, and the budget was small enough. Missy Mansour, producer of Loot talked about making deals with locations that want exposure, like hotels and restaurants. Pamala Buzick Kim, co-lead of STAYinLA, talked about the California tax credit and how small benefits like both shooting and editing in California increase the amount of your credit, and how small credits like those can add up. She also said that in talking to local LA business owners, they miss productions using their businesses as locations and want to make deals that work both for them and the filmmakers.
Screen Refresh: Independent Voices on TV
Wendy Calhoun, writer/producer of Empire and Justified, spoke with TV creators about how financing in TV differs than in the film world. Kit Williamson, creator of Eastsiders, talked about how important it is to create an audience for yourself, and looking at tools like Patreon as a new way to crowdfund. Zoe Lister-Jones, creator of Slip and Band-Aid, encouraged being scrappy and having not only a pilot script, but even a full series written or a shot pilot that was independently financed. She also emphasized writing things that can be easily produced on a budget. Billy Luther, who came from independent film and now writes and directs on Dark Winds, looks for residencies, fellowships and grants and called out sources like the Film Fatales Instagram page, as places to stay abreast of deadlines for grants. Calhoun added that brands have been reaching out to creators directly to create online series for them, and that these projects don’t have to feel like sponsored content.
One benefit that going the indie route can provide for showrunners is that there’s more control for the creator. Williamson started in the crowdfunded world and moved on to creating traditional studio projects. There he saw how difficult it was to have a project you pour your heart into fall apart or disappear and now looks forward to new opportunities in the indie space. “When approaching an independent project, I know moving forward, it’s going to be important, especially for lower budget projects that I get to maintain ownership and agency in those projects,” he said.
For over 40 years, Film Independent has helped filmmakers get their projects made and seen. The nonprofit organization’s core mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling and support a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision.
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Don’t Miss Indies: What to Watch in November
Awards season is upon us. Come November, film lovers can expect star-studded casts, emotionally-riveting storylines, and directors at the peak of their craft. These are the movies you wait all year for.
This month’s Don’t-Miss Indies list has something for everyone… new films from veteran auteurs Lynne Ramsay, Richard Linklater, and Chloé Zhao, promising up-and-comers Clint Bentley and John-Michael Powell, and international films from two multi-talented women directors. We’re highlghting intergenerational familial stories that promise hope as well as revenge, a UFO documentary that might just convince the most skeptical among us, and biopics (aka Best Performance territory) galore.
Read on for more info about these Don’t-Miss Indies – and let’s just say that the ties to our Film Independent Presents screening series are strong.
DIE, MY LOVE
When You Can Watch: November 7
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek, LaKeith Stanfield
Why We’re Excited: If the discordant, colorful, and absolutely manic trailer doesn’t draw you in, the cast of Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence and indie king-of-all-things-strange-and-wonderful Robert Pattinson should. What’s most exciting about Die, My Love, however, might just be its director, the indelible Lynne Ramsay. The Scottish auteur has never had a cinematic misstep, between the hauntingly unforgettable We Need To Talk About Kevin and the darkly hypnotic You Were Never Really Here, starring a ‘totally terrifying’ Joaquin Phoenix. Between the cast, filmmaker, and distributor (Mubi, of last year’s The Substance), Die, My Love looks to be a stylish yet unflinching look at a woman in the throes of madness that could land Lawrence her next nomination.
RENTAL FAMILY
When You Can Watch: November 21
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: HIKARI
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Mari Yamamoto, Takehiro Hira, Akira Emoto
Why We’re Excited: Rumored to be a crowd-pleaser and awards contender for Searchlight, this dramedy stars Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale) as an American actor who lands a gig at a Japanese agency playing stand-in roles for strangers. The concept comes from Japanese rental family services, which hire actors to play a client’s absent family member. As Frasier’s character forms unexpected bonds with his clientele, however, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. Rental Family is directed by HIKARI, a Film Independent Screenwriting Lab Fellow who also directed episodes of the exceptional mini series Beef for Netflix. Rental Family promises a heartfelt look at the meaning of family and the complex roles we play within them.
CHRISTY
When You Can Watch: November 7
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: David Michôd
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Ben Foster, Merritt Wever
Why We’re Excited: When actors undergo a dramatic transformation for a role, they’re often rewarded for it. Just ask Oscar-winners Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, and Charlize Theron. Christy has long been a passion project for Sydney Sweeney, who transformed herself physically to play real-life boxer Christy Martin. This biographical sports drama is directed by David Michôd (Animal Kingdom), and co-stars Ben Foster as Christy’s manager and husband. Christy Martin was the most famous woman boxer of the 1990s, achieving unprecedented professional highs and surviving harrowing personal lows. She’s an intriguing subject no matter who plays her, but Sweeney’s performance is already garnering awards buzz. Additionally, the film’s casting director, Kate Sprance, is a Film Independent member, as are producers Justin Lothrop, Brent Stiefel, and Amanda Lenker Doyle.
TRAIN DREAMS
When You Can Watch: November 7, November 21
Where You Can Watch: Select Theaters (Nov 7), Netflix (Nov 21)
Director: Clint Bentley
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, Will Patton
Why We’re Excited: Train Dreams gained momentum on the festival circuit after having its world premiere at Sundance, where it earned rave reviews. Variety even called it a ‘Best Picture Sleeper’. Based on the novella by Denis Johnson, this meditative exploration of man in nature is directed by Clint Bentley, who co-wrote the redemptive Sing Sing. Focused on a railroad worker in early 20th Century America, the film stars Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier, who finds unexpected beauty and meaning despite the rapidly changing country around him. Although Train Dreams is a period piece, it’s hard not to draw parallels between turn-of-the-century industrialization and our current technological advancements. Watching a character maintain their humanity in spite of it just might be the antidote we need. Greg Kwedar, a writer/executive producer on the project, is a Film Independent member, as is Parker Laramie, the editor/co-producer.
LEFT-HANDED GIRL
When You Can Watch: November 14, November 28
Where You Can Watch: Select Theaters (Nov 14), Netflix (Nov 28)
Director: Tsou Shih-Ching
Cast: Janel Tsai, Nina Ye, Brando Huang, Akio Chen
Why We’re Excited: Co-written, edited, and executive produced by last year’s Oscar-winning director and Film Independent member Sean Baker, Left-Handed Girl is helmed by Tsou Shih-Ching. Baker and Shih-Ching are frequent collaborators; she produced his films Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket. Left-Handed Girl is her solo directorial effort, a familial drama set at a night market in Taipei. It follows a single mother and her two daughters as they open a small restaurant in the heart of the Taiwanese capital. Shih-Ching fought for funding for many years before shooting the film on an iPhone, showcasing her indie-filmmaking prowess. Selected by Taiwan as their Best International Feature for the 2026 Academy Awards, this slice-of-life drama has a lot going for it.
HAMNET
When You Can Watch: November 27 (limited), December 12 (wide)
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Chloé Zhao
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Joe Alwyn, Emily Watson
Why We’re Excited: Before she won the Oscar for Best Director, Chloé Zhao was a Film Independent Artist Development Fellow. Her debut feature, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, was nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. Hamnet is her much-anticipated return to independent film after Nomadland won her the Oscar. It stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal and is based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell. The story is a fictionalized account of William Shakespeare’s creation of Hamlet after his son Hamnet’s untimely death from bubonic plague. While many know Hamlet as a revenge play, it is also about grief. Early reviews call it ‘devastating’ and ‘emotionally shattering’, so get your tissues ready.
BLUE MOON
When You Can Watch: October 24
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Andrew Scott
Why We’re Excited: Longtime auteur Richard Linklater has been busy. This year, in addition to Blue Moon, he’s debuting Nouvelle Vague, about the making of the French classic Breathless. Blue Moon is about Broadway songwriter Lorenz Hart, played by longtime collaborator Ethan Hawke. Hart was one half of the Broadway musical duo Rodgers and Hart, a partnership that lasted more than twenty years before Rodgers left to work exclusively with Oscar Hammerstein. The film picks up post-breakup, with Hawke’s Hart drinking away his sorrows at Sardi’s in NYC the same night Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! premieres, forcing him to watch his former partner’s greatest success from the sidelines. It promises to be a talky showcase for the multi-talented Hawke, with the added bonuses of Andrew Scott as his former partner Rodgers and Margaret Qualley as a much younger love interest.
THE AGE OF DISCLOSURE
When You Can Watch: November 21
Where You Can Watch: Select theaters and Amazon Prime
Director: Dan Farah
Why We’re Excited: For the conspiracy theorist in all of us, The Age of Disclosure is the UFO documentary everyone’s talking about. Whether you like it or not, aliens have been a growing topic of conversation, fueled by whistleblowers and Congressional hearings regarding UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena). Age of Disclosure focuses on the conspiracy theory that the government has concealed information about extraterrestrial intelligence for decades. Its title and message advocate for declassification and disclosure. It features the former director of the UAP task force, Jay Stratton, and is narrated by former U.S. Department of Defense official Lue Elizondo. Whether you believe the truth is out there or not, these participants only add to the documentary’s credibility. Critics are calling it ‘really, really convincing’… so much so, it might just make a believer out of you yet.
ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU
When You Can Watch: November 28 (Los Angeles)
Where You Can Watch: Select theaters
Director: Cherien Dabis
Cast: Cherien Dabis, Adam Bakri, Saleh Bari, Maria Zreik
Why We’re Excited: A multigenerational drama produced by Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem, All That’s Left Of You is Jordan’s selection for best international feature at the Oscars. The film ‘powerfully captures the true story of Palestine that has never been told before in a way that is both artistic and authentic’, says Bardem. All That’s Left Of You spans nearly 75 years in the lives of one Palestinian family, as they grapple with loss and displacement. Cherien Dabis, the Palestinian-American director and a Film Independent member, debuted her first film Amreeka at Sundance, and has directed several episodes of television, including an Emmy-nominated episode of Only Murders In The Building. All That’s Left Of You is a moving portrait of family and intergenerational trauma, reminding us just how much the past informs the present. Geralyn White Dreyfous, executive producer, is also a Film Independent member.
VIOLENT ENDS
When You Can Watch: October 31
Where You Can Watch: Select theaters
Director: John-Michael Powell
Cast: Billy Magnussen, James Badge Dale, Alexandra Shipp
Why We’re Excited: With its title referencing Romeo and Juliet, Violent Ends is the second film on this list inspired by Shakespeare. A southern revenge thriller about star-crossed lovers set in the Ozarks, it stars Billy Magnussen and features Alexandra Shipp as his romantic interest. Billy’s character is trying to escape his crime family’s legacy, only to get pulled back in, with tragic results. While Magnussen is always excellent, reviews are calling this performance the best of his career, and director John-Michael Powell is getting favorable comparisons to early Scorsese and Tarantino. A tense, emotional thrill ride, the film questions the ties that bind— especially those forged in blood.
KEY
Film Independent Fellow or Member
Film Independent Presents Screening, Q&A
Microbudget
Filmmaker or Lead Characters of Color
Film Independent Spirit Award Winner or Nominee
Female Filmmaker
LGBT Filmmaker or Lead LGBT Characters
First-time Filmmaker
LA Film Festival Winner or Nominee
For over 40 years, Film Independent has helped filmmakers get their projects made and seen. The nonprofit organization’s core mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling in all its forms, and to foster a culture of inclusion. We support a global community of artists and audiences who embody diversity, innovation, curiosity and uniqueness of vision. To support our mission with a donation, click here.
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Money Matters: Talking Financing at This Year’s Forum, Part I
Last month, Film Independent held its annual Forum at the DGA complex here in Los Angeles. A wide range of topics were discussed but given the interesting times our industry is going through, one that kept coming up was how to get financing for your film.
Producers, financers, executives and more all gave out valuable advice over the two days and multiple panels. We’re breaking down talk-by-talk some of the advice that was doled out to this year’s attendees. In part one, we’ll take a look at what was said in three panels, The Money Puzzle: Financing Piece by Piece, The New Wave Filmmakers: Making Movies for Change and Shopping Your Project: A Pitching Clinic, and we’ll bring you even more advice in part two.
The Money Puzzle: Financing Piece by Piece
Our very own Daniel Cardone spoke with three filmmakers about the art of assembling financing from many different places, which might be the best description of independent filmmaking I can think of. Producer Jen Blake, Partner at Diversity Hire Ltd talked about how Fiscal Sponsorship is “America’s version of grants and non-recoupable money,” where unlike other countries with government art’s programs that can provide funding, U.S. films can use Fiscal Sponsorship (like Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship Program) to turn non-recoupable funds into non-profit donations that can be used as tax write-offs. She noted that some large corporations like tech companies match donations that employees make, and that can double or triple the amount that you receive from one person’s fiscal sponsorship.
The film she produced, A Sad and Beautiful World, is also an international co-production, and she shared her experience with international grants. Long story short, they can be complicated, the money doesn’t come in right away, and filmmakers should have a plan for that.
Producer Sarah Strunin talked about her experience in the documentary world. She emphasized finding an issue that institutions and large donors care about. She also noted that many non-fiction grants require you to have a fiscal sponsor. After money for a film she worked on fell through, she and her team decided to go the crowdfunding route and not only lean into the importance of the subject matter, but also the appeal of a tax write-off.
Strunin then broke down how to fund a documentary in stages. For development, the funds were all out-of-pocket. Once there is something to show, the team went out fundraising, including going to pitch forums, including Points North, and speaking with international financiers like producers that can open up co-production deals.
Writer/Director Izzy Shill talked about the difficulty of asking for money and really knowing why a person should give you money they won’t or probably won’t make back. Her microbudget feature Going Nowhere was made in Louisville Kentucky, and she got half of the funding for the film from the community in Louisville and said that it was a point of pride for the people there to have a film feature their city. She noted that for many people being let into the world of filmmaking is a great price of admission, whether that’s learning the ins and outs of one particular part, like the legal or financial aspects of a production, or wanting a bit part in a film. If you know what you have of value as a filmmaker, you can share that as part of the reason why you should be getting their money.
The New Wave Filmmakers: Making Movies for Change
In a panel about issue driven films moderated by Rosalina Jowers of Inside Projects, three filmmakers talked about the difficulties and rewards of making a film that is both impactful and a piece of entertainment.
Documentary director Sam Mirpoorian spoke about the importance of capturing the zeitgeist. He was already making a film about midwestern farmers when the first Trump administration started a trade war that affected soybean farms. When the news started focusing on the farmers plight, funders became more interested in his film. He also was honest about the risks he took to get his project made, including taking a loan out in his name. One thing he strongly recommended was to always have more projects ready to go, because when you do find funders and distributors, they generally like to invest in known entities, and being reliable to both execute and keep coming up with ideas can turn a one project deal into a lasting relationship.
Shoshannah Stern, director of Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, comes from a family that’s all deaf. When PBS wanted to make a documentary about deaf icon Marlee Matlin, the one condition Matlin had was the film had to be directed by a deaf woman, and that’s how Stern became involved. She warned against trying to make a story that you think is a “safe bet” from a funding or distributing perspective. She emphasized that investors respond to authenticity.
The story of Rosemead started out as an LA Times article that producer Andrew Corkin couldn’t get out of his head. It deals with difficult and heavy subject matter, and even though Lucy Liu was attached to star in the film, Corkin still had trouble finding funding. He mentioned organizations like Impact Partners that do still look for projects that have a social message and really helped get the film made, but still stressed the importance of knowing who your film is for and how to get people to care about your film. While acknowledging how hard it is to get funding in this atmosphere, Corkin encouraged people to be persistent, because it can only take a couple “yes’s” to get a project off the ground.
Shopping Your Project: A Pitching Clinic
While the art of pitching was the main event at this panel moderated by Film Independent’s Angela Lee, the end result of a successful pitch – getting financing – inevitably became a big part of the discussion.
Chris Quintos Cathcart, Co-Founder of Unapologetic Projects, a funder talked about what her company looks for in a project to make sure the films are profitable. She said she looks for projects that have gotten grants and gone through Labs like the Film Independent Artist Development Labs, as a way to make sure the project and team can deliver a great end product. “I need to know that I can write you a million-dollar check, and I’m going to get a movie on the other end of that,” she said. Quintos Cathcart acknowledged that films are risky investments, and talked about emphasizing “Return on Impact” versus “Return on Investment” when it comes to talking with investors.
Nina Parikh, the director of Film Mississippi, talked about local tax rebates and incentives. The money from those incentives are generally guaranteed as long as the bookkeeping is all in good order, and in the case of the state of Mississippi means 25%-35% back of all money spent in the state, including payroll. Another benefit is that the incentive comes in a cold hard cash. A large difference between incentives and other forms of financing is that it comes after the money is spent. That can be mitigated by loans though, if you have a letter-of-intent to show the lender.
Finally, Brenda Robinson an executive producer of films such as Passing and the Acting President of Film Independent explained how relationships are some of the most valuable things for investors, and for filmmakers to appreciate that most of the time, the investor is on the filmmaker’s side and wants to be additive to the process, “making sure you see people as a whole person, not as a dollar sign; someone who cares and has sincere intentions of being your partner and not just the check writer.” In her work with Impact Partners, she sees equity investing coming in more because with some projects seeing bigger audiences, money is being recouped. On the flip side, grant money is coming into the fiction world as finding traditional investors for indie productions becomes more difficult and investors want to see that broad “Return on Impact” that a fiction story can provide. She left the audience with a reminder of how the relationship between investor and filmmaker is a partnership and that it’s an equal one at that. “You are the one -the storyteller- with the talent. You have what the rest of us don’t have, and that’s so special. You have leverage, it turns out.”
For over 40 years, Film Independent has helped filmmakers get their projects made and seen. The nonprofit organization’s core mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling and support a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision.
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ICYMI: Five of Our Favorite Super-Spooky Halloween Entertainments
On the eve of All Hallow’s Eve, we’re looking back at a couple of our favorite horror-themed posts. Enjoy this one from 2023.
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The great irony of Halloween is that in subjecting ourselves to scares of the kitschy seasonal-grocery-aisle variety, we somehow inoculate ourselves, for a moment, the IRL horrors that so consistently plague us each day online in the news each day. But horror movies and other October-end entertainments aren’t necessarily always simply a distraction. Just as often they’re an honest expression of universal human anxieties, dressed up in a foul-smelling rubber mask from the ad-hoc aisles of your local Spirit Halloween retail outlet. (Seriously, what’s up with the inside of those masks? Gross.)
Point is: scary movies are both fun and—in some weird way—necessary. Particularly as the evenings begin to dim and pumpkin spice flavonoids start to invade any and all commercially available foodstuffs. But! There are nearly as many different shades of Halloween comfort-viewing as there are of autumn leaves.
Whether you’re an unabashed gore-hound with a taste for ultra-intense indie horror or a comedy nerd with a soft spot for trick-or-treat silliness, you no doubt have some sort of perennial Halloween viewing ritual. What are some of ours? GLAD YOU ASKED. Let’s take a look at this month’s Must-List to find out:
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (Episode: “Fear, Itself”)
Why we love it: October is the ideal and most obvious time to revisit Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Though each Halloween episode of the series is wonderful in its own way (shout-out to sexy-ghost Willow), it’s “Fear, Itself” (Season 4, Episode 4) that I still watch every year. The Scooby Gang finds themselves trapped inside a fraternity house of horrors, as fear demon “Gachnar” exploits their deepest anxieties (It fans will enjoy meditating on this theme again, sans clowns). I appreciate the too-real exploration of how the things that scare us most are intrinsically tied to the things most important to us. Sure, the episode has zombies, witchcraft and werewolves—it is Buffy after all—but “Fear, Itself” (first aired in 1999) marks a major turning point in the series, where it moved beyond monsters-of-the-week in favor of bigger existential questions about good, evil and everything in-between. It’s also one of the funniest episodes of the series. What are you waiting for? Watch it on Hulu! Look: Giles wears this hat in the episode. COME ON.
IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN (1966)
Why we love it: A Charlie Brown Christmas usually sucks up all the love, but my preferred Charles M. Schulz-brand holiday export is 1966’s Halloween-themed It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Directed by Bill Melendez (who directed several Peanuts programs throughout the decade) the CBS special finds the iconic cartoonist’s coterie of melancholic tots—zigzag enthusiast Charlie Brown, football-based tormentor Lucy, kid sister Sally, chair-hating pianist Schroeder, disconcertingly filthy Pigpen, “Peppermint” Patty, et al.—engaged in various angst-riddled Halloween shenanigans. But the two plot threads that really stand out are “flying ace” Snoopy’s totally imagined battles with WWI-era aviator villain “The Red Baron” and poor, mixed-up Linus’s quixotic dedication in waiting for an appearance by the titular Great Pumpkin—a Santa-esque seasonal figure of his own creation. The results are heartbreaking, wistful and adorable in equal measure, in that nostalgic bitter-taste-of-childhood way that the great Mr. Schulz was always so deft at creating. I dare you not to love it.
AUDITION (1999)
Why we love it: When I was in college, I signed up to take an Asian-horror cinema class. But nothing could have prepared me—or my eyes—for Audition, Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike’s gruesome, startling, even nauseating thriller. If you’re looking for a cutesy Halloween-themed movie to watch with friends over candy corn and hot tea, you’re in the wrong place. Audition starts out slow, but methodically builds to a moment of utter monstrosity. No spoilers here, but if you’ve seen the film you definitely know exactly what I’m talking about. This film explores themes of revenge, trauma, repression and shifting power roles—at first quietly and subtly, eventually leading to the big payoff moment towards the end of the film. To say there’s “memorable imagery” is an understatement. Check it out—or don’t!
THE WORST WITCH (1986)
Why we love it: I probably haven’t seen this since the first George Bush was President, but for several years during my brain’s most formative stage of memory-making the go-to VHS tape in our house around Halloween was The Worst Witch—HBO’s 70-minute 1986 adaptation of Jill Murphy’s supernatural YA novel of the same name. Though my memories of the program are pleasantly foggy in that fuzzy-childhood way, the thing that mostly jumps out in my mind is that The Worst Witch was TOTALLY Harry Potter before Harry Potter. A young Fairuza Balk plays Mildred Hubble, an underachieving and unpopular student at something called “Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches.” Eventually (spoilers!) poor Mildred is redeemed, singled out for her extraordinary qualities—what they are, I don’t quite recall—by visiting “Grand Wizard” Tim Curry. Shot on dicey ‘80s-era video and featuring charmingly corny visual effects, The Worst Witch is indeed as delightful as it sounds. You won’t regret checking it out.
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)
Why we love it: I grew up in a woodsy town in southern New Jersey. And when I first watched 1999’s cult classic The Blair Witch Project, directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. I never saw the place the same way again. What was truly terrifying for me was the film’s minimalism; the lo-fi found footage aesthetic that just made everything seem so real. The majority of the film is just darkness. A single flash, a woman face—that’s all you needed to completely freak me out. The sound of the footsteps creeping around the tent and the screams Heather makes when she’s looking for her friends? To this day it gives me chills.
Film Independent promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here.
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FiSpo Spotlight: Couples Turning the Page
Welcome to Fiscal Spotlight, a special monthly round up of projects—at all stages of production—working their way through Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship pipeline. Enjoy!
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A relationship is a coming together of two people with two different histories, and two different perspectives. There’s strength in those differences, but there can also be tension. When difficult times come for both partners, those differences can reveal different ways forward. The path chosen can be one decided on together, or two separate paths that can end up driving the couple apart.
The couples in the four films in this month’s Fiscal Spotlight all have come to a difficult point in their relationships and must decide if they will take on their challenges together or alone.
In Coparenting Storey, two exes work out how to navigate their history, their families and their coming child. In Good Evening Marshall (Good Evening, Geraldine), a literal reset button wreaks havoc on a couple trying to hold things together when they receive difficult news. With Switches, a couple tries to save their relationship by taking a pill that allows them to switch bodies & lives. Finally, in Tomorrow Night, an elderly couple has to find a way to come together to deal with the uncomfortable physical aspects of aging.
Through Fiscal Sponsorship, independent filmmakers and media artists gain access to nonprofit funding, helping bring their unique visions to life. These projects embrace diversity, push creative boundaries, and showcase the power of independent storytelling. Want to explore the full lineup of sponsored projects? Head over to our Sponsored Projects page and take a look!
Keep reading to learn more, including how you can support these projects.
TOMORROW NIGHT
Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Development
Writer/Director: Drew Marquardt
Producers: Halley Lamberson, Wei Dai
About the Project: An elderly couple’s deep bond is tested by the physical and emotional tolls of aging, leading them to find unexpected intimacy in the most awkward of moments.
Meet the Filmmaker: Drew Marquardt — Writer/Director
Drew is currently the producer of the screenwriting podcast Scriptnotes with John August (Big Fish, Aladdin) and Craig Mazin (Chernobyl, The Last Of Us). His most recent short Act of War won multiple student filmmaker awards in the United States. He holds a BFA from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and is a recent MFA graduate of USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program.
SWITCHES
Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Production
Producer: Brandon Broussard
About the Project: Switches is near future comedy about a couple on the brink of divorce who take a pill to save their marriage.
Meet the Filmmaker: Brandon Broussard — Producer
Brandon Broussard started the feature writing team, Murder Ink with Hudson Obayuwana and Jana Savage in 2015. Since then, his writing team has had several films produced including The Perfect Match for Lionsgate, #RealityHigh for Netflix and Praise This for Universal Studios. Their spec, Homecoming based on Brandon’s experience at Howard University was on the 2021 Blacklist and is currently set at Lionsgate with he and his team producing. Currently, they’re writing the latest The Addams Family film, Cousin It for Amazon/MGM and are in pre-production on Just Wynn, a feature comedy starring Chris Tucker with Good Fear and STX producing. Brandon wrote and directed the short film, Run which was in several festivals. Switches: A Future Love Story, is Brandon’s debut as a solo feature writer and director. Brandon resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Mikah and their son, Maverick.
GOOD EVENING, MARSHALL (GOOD EVENING, GERALDINE)
Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Pre-Production
Writer/Producer: Jessica Mosher
Director: Laura Seay
About the Project: Geraldine and Marshall need everything to be perfect and they work very, very hard to keep it that way, thank you very much. But when one of them questions the rigid rules of their game, their literal reset button stops working and they are forced to confront reality or risk losing each other forever.
Meet the Filmmakers: Jessica Mosher — Writer/Producer
Jessica Mosher is a Canadian actor and award-winning screenwriter based in New York City. Winner of the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition, she has also been recognized by the HollyShorts Screenplay Contest, Cinequest Screenwriting Competition, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition, and Outstanding Screenplays, among others. Her fiction has been published in the Jet Fuel Review and she has also been recognized as a fiction finalist at the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards and awarded a core residency in screenwriting at Millay Arts. She loves stories about women behaving badly and unexpected narrative structure. (www.jessicamosher.com)
Laura Seay — Director
Laura Seay is an award-winning director, writer, and actor whose films have
screened at Oscar-qualifying and top-tier festivals worldwide, earning numerous accolades across the circuit and critical acclaim from publications including MovieMaker Magazine and Film Threat. A Ryan Murphy Half Initiative fellow, she has shadowed directors on FBI and Doctor Odyssey, and is a Sundance Collab selectee. Her work blends emotional precision with bold visual storytelling across genres. As an actor, she has performed for top directors including Steven Soderbergh (Command Z), with credits in Superbad, NCIS, and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. She is a member of the Alliance of Women Directors.
COPARENTING STOREY
Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Development
Writer/Director: Brandyn Johnson
Producers: Tyrin Bell-Sinkfield, Khari Johnson, Masora Fukuda
About the Project: Simone is trying to co-parent with her ex. Art is trying to prove he’s not still in love with her. Their families are wild, their boundaries are unclear, and their newborn is already judging them.
Meet the Filmmaker: Brandyn Johnson — Writer/Director
Brandyn Johnson is a father, filmmaker, and educator from Brooklyn, NY. California is where he currently calls home. During his time at USC, he developed a proficiency in screenwriting, creative producing, directing and film sound through mentorship from award-winning professionals like Brenda Goodman, David Balkan, Barnet Kellman, and Midge Costin. In a nutshell, his narrative work largely focuses on the new vs the old—the things we learn and take from the past that inform the futures we build for ourselves. Continuing to strengthen his understanding of the film language, he’s committed to telling thoughtful and honest stories that reflect the people and diverse communities that have shaped him. Johnson is a 2025 Film Independent Project Involve Fellow and currently serves as the Program Manager for Ghetto Film School LA. The young people in his life, including his 8 year-old son Grey, are his harshest yet most loving critics.
Learn more about Fiscal Sponsorship, including its benefits and eligibility requirements by visiting our website. See which projects are currently being supported via our Sponsored Projects page.
Film Independent Artist Development promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To support our work with a donation, please click here. Become a Member of Film Independent here.
Keep up with Film Independent…