Biggest. Grant. Ever. Film Independent Awarded $2.55 Million From Perenchio Foundation
What started in 1981 with a small band of pioneering directors, writers and producers is poised for a new era of growth, thanks to a philanthropic investment of $2.55 million from the Perenchio Foundation.
“At a time when our industry is undergoing profound change, this support gives Film Independent the opportunity to build a more resilient organization,” Fi President Juan Devis told IndieWire, “[to] strengthen our artist ecosystem, expand our role in the creative economy, and ensure that the next generation of filmmakers has the resources, community, and platform to thrive. We are profoundly grateful for their partnership and confidence in our vision.”
The grant goes to work during the next three years, cementing our status as a leading Arts Institution in Los Angeles and underscoring the vital role of film and media arts in the city’s nonprofit arts ecosystem. “What we are investing in is not a program or a season,” says Perenchio CEO, Stephania Ramirez. “It is the infrastructure behind the work — the staffing, the systems, the reserves that allow an organization to absorb a hard year without losing what took twenty years to build. That is what multi-year unrestricted support makes possible, and it is the only kind of investment the Foundation believes is worth making.”
Significant to Film Independent is how Perenchio recognizes film and media arts within the broader Los Angeles nonprofit arts sector. Large-scale arts funding has tended to favor other cultural institutions and art forms over film and media. We’re proud to be changing that conversation, and showing why the cinematic arts are just as important to support, especially in changing times.
Film Independent will continue to focus on strengthening partnerships with other Los Angeles-based arts nonprofits and bringing together audiences and artists. Los Angeles is where we were founded, and while we have a global reach, we call L.A. home, and we will continue to show up for the L.A. community.
From the organization’s early days in the 80s to present-day, connecting artist development with public-facing cultural programming remains a core tenet of Film Independent’s work, supporting filmmakers throughout the lifecycle of their projects—from production and funding through distribution and celebration—while building the knowledge, networks and community that sustain creative careers.
About Perenchio Foundation
Established by the late A. Jerrold ‘Jerry’ Perenchio, the Perenchio Foundation believes the arts are essential to how communities see themselves, sustain themselves, and grow. The Foundation is committed to creating lasting impact in Los Angeles by investing in
arts organizations that embody quality, accessibility, and permanence. Learn more at perenchiofoundation.org
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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Fiscal Update: Over the Finish Line
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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Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship program has supported all sorts of projects: shorts and features, narrative and nonfiction. Oh, and a few new media projects, special events or advocacy initiatives. Each month’s Fiscal Spotlight column highlights three new projects taking part in the program.
With the power of Fiscal Sponsorship, these projects end up getting made, and from time to time we love to feature some of those successes. Once again it’s time for another Fiscal Update.
This month we have exciting news from three films, all with a little left to raise to be either start shooting or wrap post. They include a twisted neo-noir about two stripper roommates, a coming of age story at a rest stop, and a sci-fi rom-com about avoiding the right thing to do.
Betty & Mary: Neighbors
Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Post-Production
Writer/Producer/Lead Actor: Dana Lyn Baron
Director: America Young
Producer: Stephanie O’Neill
About the Project: After murdering their sleaze-ball boss and blowing up their workplace, two dysfunctional strippers — one jaded, one guilt-ridden — try to lay low, shake off the hangover, and figure out if their new neighbor with wings is here to help… or just judge the shit out of them.
Filmmaker Update: We’re thrilled to share that Betty & Mary: Neighbors has officially wrapped production. As the second chapter in Dana Lyn Baron’s award-winning Betty & Mary trilogy, this has been an exciting and ambitious chapter for our team, and after months of fundraising, planning and preparation, it was incredibly rewarding to bring the film to life with an extraordinary cast and crew.
In this twisted new installment, Betty and Mary land in another parallel universe – this time as two strippers navigating guilt, survival and a mysterious new neighbor who may be there to help them… or judge the shit out of them. Now we’re deep in post-production, shaping the film through editing, sound, score, color, visual effects and all the finishing work that will bring Neighbors fully to life. Film Independent’s fiscal sponsorship support has been instrumental in helping us reach this stage, and we’re grateful to be moving into the next phase with so much momentum as we continue raising the final funds needed to complete the film.
Night At The Oasis
Project type: Fiction Feature
Project status: Development
Writer/Director: Kim Caicedo
Producer: Heliya Alam, Warner Davis
About the Project: At a Florida highway rest stop, a sheltered pre-teen is accidentally abandoned while accompanying her truck driver father on a delivery.
Filmmaker Update: After receiving overwhelmingly positive responses at Sundance 2026 and Cannes 2026, we’re incredibly proud to share that our film is now 80% funded. We couldn’t have come this far without the supporters, believers, and partners who saw the potential in this story and believed in what we’re trying to create. With an incredible cast attached, a powerful script, and a passionate crew behind it, we are on track to bring this film to life this year.
But we’re not at the finish line yet. With the remaining 20% of our financing still to raise, we’re asking our community to help us take this project across the finish line. Every contribution brings us one step closer to making this story a reality. At its heart, this is a story about belonging, and what it means to grow up feeling caught between two worlds. It is raw, heartfelt, and deeply personal, shining a light on the experiences of second-generation immigrants who may struggle to find their place, their identity, and a sense of home.
Oh, No!
Project type: Fiction Feature
Project status: Development
Writer/Director/Producer: Scott Mckinney
About the Project: Isla broke her simulation to avoid fate forcing her to break up with her boyfriend, Ezra; now, she’s living in a self-induced time loop.
Filmmaker Update: Our crowdfunding campaign ends the middle of August as we find the last bit of funds needed to start filming in September. Twelve of our 15 days of principal photography will be done at a beautiful home in the front range of the Rocky Mountains outside of Golden, Colorado. We have been in the thick of finishing crewing, shot designing, fundraising, and other pre-producing work.
In the next few weeks, we’re excited to rehearse with our stellar cast and bring this broken simulation and unique story to life. Anna Telfer leads with Skyler Bible, Hilty Bowen, and Brian Barlow supporting. Anna has music to master, she and Brian have a fight scene to rehearse, Skyler and Brian have a dance to perfect, and Hilty has to polish a Southern and a British accent. Though we will be able to start production, we are still raising fundings through the fiscal sponsorship to help us through post and potential pick up days.
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.
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Film Independent Names Six Writers to the 10th Annual Episodic Lab
Ten years in, Film Independent’s Episodic Lab is still doing what it does best: finding writers with a distinct voice and giving them the room, and the mentors, to sharpen it. This year’s cohort is officially set, and we’re proud to announce that this year’s Fellows are Lauren Ferebee, Kristian Mercado, Nikki Palumbo, Sam Schaefer, Val Tan, and LaDarrion Williams. Running August 10 to 21, the two-week intensive pairs writers with original TV pilots with personalized story and career development.
The Lab celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2026 with Netflix returning as Founding Sponsor, continuing its commitment to giving Fellows real exposure to how shows actually get made and produced.
This year also brings a notable honor: Nikki Palumbo has been awarded the $20,000 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant for their pilot Personality Hire. The grant goes annually to one Episodic Lab Fellow whose project meaningfully weaves science or technology themes and characters into a dramatic story, and it will support Palumbo’s development of the pilot throughout the Lab.
In the Lab
The Episodic Lab is an in-person program built around access: Fellows get personalized feedback from working showrunners, creative producers, and executives, learning to revise their pilots while also learning how to navigate an industry that keeps shifting under everyone’s feet. The program wraps with a networking and pitch event, where Fellows introduce themselves and their work directly to studio and network executives.
“We are thrilled to be celebrating ten years of championing visionary writers through the Episodic Lab. We are proud to welcome the new cohort of bold and inventive storytellers to the Lab, where we will further hone their visions and support the advancement of their careers in entertainment,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs.
This year’s roster of Creative Advisors and Guest Speakers includes Akil Rashad Anderson, Olivia Blaustein, Mel Eslyn, JaNeika James, JaSheika James, Henry “Hank” Jones, Justin S. Lee, Montserrat Luna, Caroline Mak, Glen Mazzara, Colleen McGuinness, Robbie Pickering, Loretta Ramos, Gina Reyes, Beth Schacter, Ellen Shanman, and Ligiah Villalobos.
Now let’s meet the 2026 Fellows and Their Pilots:
LADARRION WILLIAMS
Title: Crescent Sun
Logline: A precocious Black teen has his life turned upside down when he finds a supernatural amulet that awakens an ancient African demigod… who resembles his likeness along with a vengeful high priest that begins to wreak havoc on the modern world.
SAM SCHAEFER
Title: Cult Like Activity
Logline: Following the sudden dissolution of their cult, two lost twenty-somethings realize they only have one option: start their own.
VAL TAN
Title: Dancing in a Forbidden World
Logline: In 1950s San Francisco, a disciplined Chinese-American ballerina secretly joins an Asian burlesque nightclub, but as her popularity rises, her double life becomes impossible to conceal.
LAUREN FEREBEE
Title: Family Dynamics
Logline: When scandal shatters a legendary New York music dynasty, a gifted cello prodigy and her ambitious family must choose between protecting their legacy and being true to themselves.
KRISTIAN MERCADO
Title: The Hustler
Logline: When a once-legendary hip-hop manager is pushed out of the industry by younger, data-driven execs, he gambles everything to rebuild his career by managing a reckless reggaetón prodigy, only to find himself pulled into a dangerous web of ambition and fame in modern-day Los Angeles.
NIKKI PALUMBO
Title: Personality Hire
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant Recipient
Logline: An unlikely working relationship develops between an overzealous tech billionaire and a reluctant writer who realizes the only way to make artificial intelligence any better is to fix the broken real world it’s trained on.
A Track Record That Speaks for Itself
The Episodic Lab has a way of launching careers. Past Fellows include April Shih, who has written on FX’s Fargo, Dave, and Mrs. America, and struck an overall deal at FX Productions. Kimi Lee wrote on Amazon’s Expats and Apple’s The Morning Show, then sold her own series, $ugar, to Hulu after a four way bidding war. Henry “Hank” Jones, who now also serves as a Guest Speaker for this year’s Lab, has written on ABC’s Will Trent and Apple’s Truth Be Told. Justin S. Lee, who created the series Recap with Fifth Season also returns as a Guest Speaker.
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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INTERVIEW: ‘Cookie Queens’ Director Alysa Nahmias on Big Screen Documentaries & Cookie Capitalism
This week we’re seeing something exceedingly rare come to the local cineplex: a feature documentary not anchored by a celebrity or music performance. Hot off of her recent acceptance of the Film Independent Changemaker Award, documentarian and Film Independent Fellow Alysa Nahmias is coming to the big screen with her latest feature Cookie Queens which releases nation-wide August 7th.
The film follows four Girl Scouts over the course of one cookie-selling season, as they push Thin Mints, upsell Tagalongs, and try to reach the goals they set for themselves. Nahmias is known for directing documentaries about the art world like Art & Krimes By Krimes, The New Bauhaus and Unfinished Spaces, but came to the world of Girl Scout Cookies by engaging with her two daughters. She found there was plenty of interesting themes to baked into the idea– including gender inequality, ambition, fair compensation, and the lessons we teach our children about living in a world where everything is for sale. That tension between the lighthearted and the thematically-rich interested Nahmias. “What I found with Cookie Queens was a balance between familiarity and surprise,” she said. “There’s a film audiences might expect from this subject, and then there’s what we actually made. I want to take people somewhere they didn’t expect.”
The bet that Nahmias and her distributor Roadside Attractions is making, is that the sweet hook of watching the girls trying to meet their sales goals will let the film tackle some of these thorny questions. We spoke with Nahmias about her personal connection to the world of cookies, and what a theatrical documentary looks like in 2026.
What was your connection to Girl Scouts and cookie selling, and what drew you to making this film?
My 9 year-old and 11 year-old kids watched the last film I directed, liked it, and then they challenged me to make a documentary that they’d really want to share with all of their friends. Soon after that, my producer told me about a girl who had really impressed him selling Girl Scout Cookies at a restaurant. I immediately knew this was the film I had to make. Not only is the Girl Scout Cookie sale a vibrant visual world full of amazing characters, but the way my male producer described this young woman shifted: first she was “cute,” and then suddenly she surprised him as super smart and savvy. I could see myself in that girl, both from my own childhood and as a woman. There’s sometimes a real gap between how we see ourselves and how the world sees us. In an epiphany moment, I realized that cookie selling was a way into something much larger — girlhood, capitalism, how girls are taught about value and our place in the economy. It was never only about the cookies. I wanted to represent girlhood more three dimensionally than we typically see it on screen.
What was the development and fundraising process like?
Cookie Queens is completely independently produced, funded through grants from Sundance, Ford Foundation, Artemis Rising Foundation, the Harnish Foundation, and others, alongside some independent equity financing. My producers and I pitched the project at the Sundance Catalyst Forum development slate in 2023, where we secured seed funding. That support gave me room to develop my creative approach and dig into references — films that took childhood seriously, that saw kids as complex characters. I was looking at Moonrise Kingdom, The Florida Project, and Petite Maman, for example. That process shaped the whole aesthetic of the film. I decided there would be no sit-down interviews. Everything would be observational, entirely in the moment, and that I wanted to capture the way the girls perform femininity when they’re selling, how that mode turns on and off.
How did you find your subjects, and how did you build trust with the families?
We cast a wide net. Part of the Sundance Catalyst funding allowed us to hire a casting producer, Whitney Adams, who did excellent work with grassroots outreach through parent groups on social media and Girl Scout troop leaders, who are extremely well organized. My producer Jen Sims and I attended the National Girl Scout Convention and spent time visiting families before we ever turned on a camera, just getting to know them, being honest about the commitment and trust that documentary filmmaking requires from both sides.
I was looking for kids who genuinely worked hard at selling, who had real strategies and imaginations, who could be comfortable with a crew and open about their inner worlds. I told them from the beginning: I don’t care how many cookies you sell. I care about what happens along the way, what you discover about yourself or the world this cookie season.
The film spends a lot of time with the girls outside of selling — Olive in her cotillion class, for instance. How did you decide which moments like that belonged in the film?
There actually aren’t that many shots of cookies in this film, because a lot of scenes take place with the girls in other areas of their lives. This is a coming-of-age story. Nikki and her sisters spend time together in their bedroom playing with dolls and makeup, and the pressures they talk about with regard to selling cookies are similar to the pressures children might feel about sports or school. We see Shannon Elizabeth learning karate as a way to understand her journey with self-confidence. We watch Ara, who has Type 1 Diabetes, practice selling cookies she can’t eat. To me, that spoke to something much bigger about accessibility. A scene like Olive at her etiquette class tells us what drives her, and that question, what drives these kids, was at the heart of everything. Not just who drives them to the supermarket with their Samoas, but what is motivating them to pour so much of themselves into this commercial endeavor for a company that does $800 million a year in cookie sales.
Can you talk about the editing process and weaving four stories together?
This was my first film interweaving four separate stories. I wanted to make something where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I worked with three editors at different phases of the edit — Kim Roberts, Jeannie Applegate, and Fatima De Los Santos — whose different perspectives were invaluable. With Fatima and Jeanne, we identified each Girl Scout’s story arc and key scenes. In the final phase with Kim, we were finding the transitions between stories that said something bigger than any one of them alone.
Documentary gives you things you could never write. Olive’s opening line about upselling — people have asked me if she said that. I just filmed her teaching the younger Daisies about cookie sales and stepped back. I could never invent that line. It’s completely Olive! That’s what I keep coming back to about nonfiction: the world hands you things that are both utterly specific and somehow universal. Finding those moments, the ones that seem small but are actually much larger, is such a joyful part of the work.
The film is getting a theatrical release, which is significant for a documentary. What does that mean to you, and what did you learn from making something with a built-in audience?
I always wanted watching Cookie Queens to be a communal experience, something a family, a Girl Scout troop, a mixed-age audience could share. When we premiered at Sundance in the Eccles Theater, which seats over 1,200 people, the energy was electric. Laughter, tears, applause breaking out in the middle of scenes. That told me this was something worth seeing together in a room.
Roadside Attractions has a strong track record with theatrical documentaries, and the built-in audience is real: Girl Scouts membership is around 2 million current members and over 50 million alumni, and that’s before you count everyone who has ever bought the cookies. But beyond the audience numbers, I think the film earns a theatrical experience through the visuals, the music, the sound design, and my team did extraordinary work across all of those.
As for what I’ll carry forward: every documentary demands that you adapt your entire process, your production approach, your edit, your distribution strategy, to the specific world you’re entering. What I found with Cookie Queens was a balance between familiarity and surprise. There’s a film audiences might expect from this subject, and then there’s what we actually made. I want to take people somewhere they didn’t expect. That tension, I think, is what I’ll keep chasing.
Images courtesy of Roadside Attractions
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Don’t Miss Indies: What to Watch in August
The independent spirit is thriving in theaters this summer, as we come together for life-affirming storytelling and a cool retreat from climbing temps. This month’s ten recommendations offer lots to share with friends and family, sparking conversations on grief, ambition, friendship and what it means to chase your dreams.
COOKIE QUEENS
When You Can Watch: August 7
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Writer/Director: Alysa Nahmias
Cast: Ara, Shannon Elizabeth, Nikki, Olive
Why We’re Excited: Alysa Nahmias directed the Spirit Award winning Unfinished Spaces, and is a Film Independent member (as are executive producers James Costa and Ruth Ann Harnisch). After she interviewed dozens of Girl Scouts, Nahmias found four families providing a cross-section of American life, following their cookie season and the girls’ individual coming-of-age stories. This documentary celebrates the modern experience of girlhood ambition and vision. Ara, Shannon Elizabeth, Nikki and Olive get out to sell cookies, but also build relationships and memories, devoting weekends to differentiate in a competitive market – all while being super cute. EP Meghan Markle told The Hollywood Reporter, “…every time we’ve seen it, there’s not a dry eye in the house. There are so many meaningful, grounding moments that make it much more resonant, and that’s a testament to Alysa, the crew and how hard they’ve worked on the film.”
JULIAN
When You Can Watch: August 7
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Cato Kusters
Cast: Nina Meurisse, Laurence Roothooft, Rosalia Cuevas
Why We’re Excited: Belgian filmmaker Cato Kuster’s tragic drama is based on Fleur Pierets’ 2023 memoir. Fleur and Julian are tying the knot – in every country of the 2017 world that allows gay marriage. What starts as a big romantic writing project for journalist Fleur (played by Nina Meurisse, Souleymane’s Story) snowballs into an epic travel plan involving 22 wedding ceremonies around the world. Starting in their home city of Brussels, the couple joins forces to document their adventures on camcorder. We follow them from Europe to New York, when suddenly Julian (Laurence Roothooft, Blackout) comes face to face with cancer. Fleur races to complete her vision with the limited time she has left with her love, though it can never be enough.
TONY
When You Can Watch: August 7
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Matt Johnson
Cast: Dominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones
Why We’re Excited: An origin story for the kid who will become Anthony Bourdain is carefully crafted by Matt Johnson (Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie), touching on biopic tropes without leaning too far into any one romantic or coming-of-age plot point. Spirit Award winner Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) does a fine job portraying the nuance of a brash 19-year-old finding himself in a Provincetown restaurant after his application for a writing fellowship is denied. Preparing food for tourists under the thoughtful supervision of Chef (Antonio Banderas, The Mask of Zorro), Tony’s bravado is met and challenged by the rest of the kitchen team. But a budding romance with his high school crush (Emilia Jones, CODA) reveals a softer side.
UNION COUNTY
When You Can Watch: August 10
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Writer/Director: Adam Meeks
Cast: Will Poulter, Noah Centineo, Annette Deao
Why We’re Excited: Filmmaker Adam Meeks was inspired by the opioid epidemic in America, specifically as it relates to his home state of Ohio. After extensive research with people connected to addiction and recovery – people who have used or are using opiates, their family members, support groups and even police officers and lawyers – Meeks found that nearly everyone wanted to promote stories of recovery. This is the winding narrative of brothers Cody and Jack Parsons (Will Poulter, We’re the Millers and Noah Centineo, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before) in a court-mandated drug rehab program. Taking responsibility for their situation while exploring their options for work and a social life, each of the brothers walks their individual road while influencing one another for worse and for better. Film Independent member Anita Gou is an Executive Producer, with Martha Gregory and Theresa Steele Page credited as Producers.
HONEYJOON
When You Can Watch: August 11-13
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Writer/Director: Lilian T. Mehrel
Cast: Ayden Mayeri, Amira Casar, José Condessa
Why We’re Excited: Lillian T. Mehrel was going through a difficult time when she traveled to a beautiful island in Portugal. There she had the idea to write about a mother and daughter grieving together in a romantic setting, surrounded by honeymooners. “As a filmmaker, the stories I love to tell are funny and moving,” she told Script magazine, “There was this blend of light and dark, and I was thinking about when hard things happen, life can still be sweet, and being alive means all those things.” Shot in San Miguel, Azores, Portugal, a Persian-Kurdish woman (Amira Casar from Spirit Award nominee, Call Me By Your Name) observes the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death. She clashes with her spirited American daughter (Ayden Mayeri, I Love That For You) on their uniquely individual grieving processes, but the romantic setting ultimately works its magic. Quality time and a little flirtatious energy can be very life-affirming.
EDIE ARNOLD IS A LOSER
When You Can Watch: August 18-21
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Directors: Kade Atwood, Megan Rico
Cast: Adi Madden Cabrera, Cherish Rodriguez, McKenna Tuckett
Why We’re Excited: Film Independent member Kade Atwood co-directed Megan Rico’s script based on her own high school experience. It’s a first feature for both of them, which they made in four months and then premiered at SXSW. Edie energetically champions the virtue of making – even if the quality, function or beauty of the thing being made is up for discussion. Newcomers Adi Madden Cabrera and McKenna Tuckett star as Edie and Frances, the uncool best friends who start a punk band. Inspired by the trials of an all-girl Catholic school, disapproving nuns and her crush on an altar boy, Edie throws herself into the experimental question of cool and what that gets you in life.
COYOTE VS. ACME
When You Can Watch: August 28
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Directors: Dave Green
Cast: John Cena, Lana Condor, Will Forte
Why We’re Excited: Thanks to indie distributor Ketchup Entertainment, this WBD production that has bounced around some odd bureaucratic maneuvers since 2022 is coming to theaters at last. “The movie ACME doesn’t want you to see” features Spirit Award nominee Will Forte (Nebraska) as billboard attorney Kevin Avery, who is representing Wile E. Coyote in a lawsuit. ACME products have failed him for the last time, and the live action Avery will make sure the animated Coyote gets his due. But Avery’s not exactly performing at the top of his game, and when the defendant hires Avery’s old boss (John Cena, The Suicide Squad), he’ll need some cartoon motivation to rise to the challenge. Thankfully the whole Looney Tunes cast is willing to comply.
MOUSE
When You Can Watch: August 25-27
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Directors: Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson
Cast: Sophie Okonedo, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Chloe Coleman
Why We’re Excited: Co-directed by the husband-and-wife team with Spirit Award nominations for two previous films (Ghostlight and Saint Frances), this coming-of-age friendship drama explores grief and rediscovering joy. It’s 2002 in Arkansas and Minnie (Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret) is cruelly separated from her best friend, Callie (Big Little Lies). The loss showcases Minnie’s insecurities as a small, quiet high school senior accustomed to the shadow of Callie’s outgoing popularity. Left suddenly to herself, Minnie can’t handle her own mother in her own house and flees to Callie’s. Befriending Callie’s mom (Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda) becomes a lifeline for them both, and though the way forward is not easy or clear, it does involve human connection, humor and even a little excitement. Executive Produced by Film Independent members Jonah Disend and Anita Gou.
HANGING BY A WIRE
When You Can Watch: August 28
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Mohammed Ali Naqvi
Why We’re Excited: Spirit Award nominee Mohammed Ali Naqvi (Among the Believers) documents a real-life adrenaline ride in a remote area of Pakistan. In the absence of good roads, people commonly ride makeshift cable cars through the foothills of the Himalayas, depending on two long wires to shuttle across ravines. In 2023, one of them snapped – leaving eight passengers stranded. In a tense race to beat the second cable giving out, unlikely rescuers lend their unique qualifications to bring each one home. “The entire rescue played out on live television, online, on the ground, and even from inside the cable car,” Naqvi is quoted in Deadline. “With such rich archive, we knew we had to tell this story with the scale and tension of a Hollywood action thriller, one that just happened to be a documentary.” Film Independent member Rahdi Taylor is an Executive Producer.
PROGRAMMER’S PICK: BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL
When You Can Watch: August 5
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Writer/Director: David Kittredge
Cast: John Boorman, Louise Fletcher, Spirit Award nominee Karyn Kusama
Why We’re Excited: From Film Independent Lead Programmer Jenn Wilson–
David Kittredge’s feature documentary which premiered at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival is a fascinating examination of a famous film flop – John Boorman’s 1977 Exorcist II: The Heretic. The original Exorcist (1973) which was directed by William Friedkin was a massive success at the box office and is widely considered an American horror classic. Excited fans turned out in droves to see what they thought would be a follow-up to the first film only to find that Boorman’s film was completely made in a different style from the first film and not exactly intended to match Friedkin’s film at all. The film was a box office bomb and audiences hated it. What everyone later came to discover is that behind the scenes the Exorcist II was one of Hollywood’s most ill-fated productions in every sense with almost everything going wrong on the film from the very start including massive fights between actors, illness, script rewrites, and last-minute re-edits. Given all the setbacks, it’s a miracle the film got completed and released at all. This documentary is an incredibly engrossing look back at a bygone era of filmmaking with in-depth interviews with Boorman as well as most of the living cast and crew members as they give their own perspectives on how everything went so wrong.
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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Five Films to Pair With Jane Schoenbrun’s “Secretary” Live Read
Power, sex and violence are three themes that go back to ancient times, but they are also the obsessions for of-the-moment storytellers like Homer. Together though, they can examine the extremes of the human condition, and force us to look at who we are, what we want, and what we’re willing to do for it.
This week, Film Independent is hosting Jane Schoenbrun, along with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma stars Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, for a sold out Live Read of the 2002 classic Secretary. Both films are two-handers dealing with sexual dynamism and the kink of violence. But Secretary isn’t the only other film to wade into those waters.
We’re sharing five other classics that are having similar conversations, and are great watches before this week’s Live Read and Camp Miasma’s release on August 7th.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama teamed up for this now cult classic where a possessed Megan Fox turns the tables on the boys of her small town, and leaves a trail of blood in her wake. Her best friend, played byAmanda Seyfried, still desperate for her approval, learns she has to pull herself away from the evil force that is Jennifer.
The Duke of Burgundy (2014)
An art-house slow burn from writer/director Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio) where a woman who studies butterflies and her protégé/maid embark on a BDSM relationship. The power quickly shifts as the young Evelyn’s expectations for being dominated grow and she begins to play her own power games.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The immortal Billy Wilder film whose influence can be felt across so many other classic films, Sunset Boulevard set the standard for age-gap relationships that turn into fever dreams. Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond, who pulls writer Joe Gillis (William Holden) into her orbit. The work and the personal mix, jealousy becomes violent, and the delusion it takes to create art is taken to the extreme in a film that’s always due for a rewatch.
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma acts as a meta commentary on the ability to remake a horror film ad infinitum. Another director who explored this idea was one who felt it acutely, Nightmare on Elm Streetand Scream director Wes Craven. Sick of the demands to make more Nightmare movies, he made a left turn with the underrated New Nightmare, and had Elm Street star Heather Langenkamp play herself being dragged into another sequel, and finding the production and her life being cursed by a “real” Freddy Kruger, as the retelling of the Freddy myth increases his power.
Peeping Tom (1960)
Some call Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom the original slasher film. It was undoubtably ahead of its time as it was panned by critics for dealing with unseemly themes. In it, a shy young filmmaker pathologically mixes arousal with violence, as he films himself murdering young women in first-person POV. The film acts as a dark mirror for the audience, who thanks to the filmmaking and the inherently voyeuristic nature of cinema, can’t help but be thrilled themselves.
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When the House Is on Fire, Give Teenagers a Camera
It seems apt that a room full of teenagers introduced their documentaries about ableism, gentrification, and racism gathered in a space built to memorialize a time where this country’s civil liberties failed a community wholesale. Our documentary filmmaking high school program held a special screening of films exploring civil liberties at the Japanese American National Museum’s Democracy Center — a room that exists, as one speaker put it, because the institution itself “serves as a reminder of how this country and democracy failed its people.”
The screening was the summation of a semester of work. Seventy-five students from Van Nuys High School, Westbrook Academy, and Renaissance School for the Arts in Long Beach teamed up to make short documentaries with a focus on their own communities’ oral history.
That connection was underlined at the beginning of the semester long program when every participating class watched Film Independent’s Fellow Ann Kaneko’s Manzanar Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust and sat down with the director to talk about Japanese American internment camps during World War II, as a way of providing them with a framework for their own explorations through film.
The students were ushered along by their teachers and hand selected mentors, all Film Independent Fellows, who visited each classroom throughout the spring semester, walking students through a curriculum built around documentary and oral history. The program offered them training on documentary filmmaking techniques while providing them with first-hand experience in the power of cinema to explore issues of vital social importance and express their own point of view to the larger community. The museum setting at the end was the perfect stage to highlight how history is not settled, and that the students in the room are its next chapter.
That was made evident through the films and In the conversation following the screening of their work, when he young filmmakers offered us a very fresh and hopeful outlook through their own voices: They left us with a feeling that this generation, raised on social media, COVID classrooms, and a questionable economic future, know all too well how to handle the world that has been handed to them. These high schoolers have grown up fast, but the films they made showed how they plan to step up to the plate and engage in our complicated world.
The post-screening discussion also showed just how much the program both pushed the students as well as broughtout their inner artists. Editing arguments turned into two-day debates about how to represent “systematic oppression.” A student researching Scientology for a film ostensibly about civil liberties stumbled, almost by accident, into a meditation on authenticity and social masking. A documentary about the 1984 and upcoming Olympics turned into a fight over a single word, “cleanup,” after an interview subject argued the term was really about making unhoused residents “disappear” for the cameras.
Zion Smith Vargas, describing a documentary made after attending a No Kings protest, told the room that speaking up matters. ” The more you open your mouth, the more you speak up and use your voice, you’re going to be alright”. Paulina Cummings, reflecting on why she made a film about music and community, said she believes “through art, you can not only express yourself, but also advocate for civil liberties for yourself and for your environment.” These lines weren’t fed to the students. They came to these conclusions by interacting with their subject matter, their collaborators, and through the art itself.
When given a camera, an opportunity, as well some guidance these students found their voice, and it turned out they had plenty to say. We’re sharing five of the films here:
A City on Display
Raquel Grande, Andrea Baptist, Diora Smith-Vargas, Alexandra Umana, Mellanie Solis, and Reece Nicholson
Westbrook Academy, 12th Grade
The System: Ableism
Eden Hardwick and Liam Klipstine
Van Nuys High School, 9th Grade
The Art of Becoming
Daniel Arteaga-Rodriguez, Joaquin Lopez, Iris Esquivias, and Addie Transue
Renaissance High School for the Arts, 11th Grade
The Right Word
Harlye J. Einbinder, Epique Jackson, Esther Ortiz, Layla Green, Jayleen Santilon-Solrzano, Angel Bernal-Ramirez, Ella Gemme, and Daisy Gonzales-Ordoze
Van Nuys High School, 9th Grade
The Air We Breathe
Oliver Bryant, Jhet Aquino-Medrano, and Ingrid Garcia
Renaissance High School for the Arts, 11th Grade
This profound documentary exploration program was supported by Snap Foundation and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
To see more exceptional films created by high schoolers, check out our upcoming Future Filmmakers Showcase on 7/24. Reserve your tickets here:
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Don’t Miss Indies: What to Watch in July
The summer is heating up, and this month’s invitation to cool off at the movie theater comes with a complete menu of indie films – truly something for anyone (though maybe not for everyone). Dance with the hobbyhorses, match wits with 16-century samurai, or have your world rocked by a sexually adventurous boss lady, but don’t stay home and complain there’s nothing to watch.
NIGHT NURSE
When You Can Watch: June 30
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Writer/Director: Georgia Bernstein
Cast: Cemre Paksoy, Bruce McKenzie, Eleonore Hendricks
Why We’re Excited: A dark psychological thriller set in a luxury retirement community, where a young nurse named Eleni (Cemre Paksoy, The Affair) is hired for in-home care. Her enigmatic patient, Douglas (Bruce McKenzie, House) is a life-long con artist, running a racket on his elderly neighbors. Eleni is drawn into the scheme, taken with Douglas and his magnetic confidence. As another nurse (Eleonore Hendricks, Uncut Gems) joins the game of deluding senior citizens into believing she’s their granddaughter in distress, they form a cultish throuple around Douglas’s mysteriously failing health and suburban crime spree. “I wanted the film to explore that emotional space where being needed can feel like purpose,” filmmaker Georgia Bernstein told The Film Stage, “and how that devotion can gradually become destructive.”
YOUNG WASHINGTON
When You Can Watch: July 3
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Jon Erwin
Stars: Mary-Louise Parker, William Franklyn-Miller, Ben Kingsley
Why We’re Excited: The latest blockbuster biopic takes on an intimidating figure in world history: George Washington, but not as the future president of the as-yet-unformed United States. Starring British actor William Franklyn-Miller (Dongji Rescue), we meet George as a preteen mourning the death of his father, then follow his coming of age as a wannabe Brit. Shunned by the society to which he aspires, the ambitious young colonist resolutely seeks out opportunities to distinguish himself, courting the hand of a lady (hint: not Martha) and volunteering for a dodgy mission with the Virginia militia led by Robert Dinwiddie (Spirit Award nominee Ben Kingsley, House of Sand and Fog). In contrast to the laudatory writings of Washington in his time, filmmaker Jon Erwin (I Can Only Imagine) attempts to showcase the making of a resilient leader by depicting a Washington who wavers, who lies, and who even fails – but tries again.
THEY FIGHT
When You Can Watch: July 7
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Director: Sheldon Candis
Stars: Wendell Pierce, André Holland, Samira Wiley
Why We’re Excited: The setting for this boxing drama is Southeast Washington, DC, where Slim (Spirit Award nominee Wendell Pierce, Burning Cane) runs a youth recreation center. Fresh out of prison and eager to prove himself to the mother of his child, Walt (André Holland, Moonlight) returns to his old mentor and is given a chance to coach boxing, a sport he used to love. There he encounters neighborhood teens fighting their own trials in life: one parent’s terminal illness and another’s absenteeism. Through the medium of boxing, the underdog bunch rises to their collective challenges while Walt seeks a job and a place to live, struggling to maintain his 3-year sobriety when back pain tests his resolve. Based on a true story and a 2018 documentary with the same name.
READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN
When You Can Watch: July 10
Where You Can Watch:
Director: Eran Riklis
Stars: Golshifteh Farahani, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Mina Kavani
Why We’re Excited: Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis (Lemon Tree) brings to the screen 24 years of work, academic debate and resistance from Azar Nafisi’s 2003 memoir. The Iranian-American began teaching in Tehran after the 1979 revolution promised a whole new world for Iranians in the diaspora who came back home. Azar (played by Golshifteh Farahani, Paterson) teaches literature in a prestigious university, encouraging spirited discussion among her students. As strong religious views begin to take effect, the class is first segregated to women-only, then mandated to embrace conservative clothing, until Azar’s curriculum itself is protested in the street. Navigating these changes in her private life as well as her classroom, Azar fights for the freedom to embrace the uncomfortable conversations that come after reading books like Lolita.
FORBIDDEN FRUITS
When You Can Watch: July 15
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Director: Meredith Alloway
Stars: Lili Reinhart, Jordan Duarte, Victoria Pedretti
Why We’re Excited: The girls working at this mall fashion store are more than just a clique – they’re a coven. Of witches? Perhaps. This witty dark comedy pairs a unique twist on feminist ideals with frolicsome mall set pieces: inducting a new member from the pretzel stand, sleeping with guys from the food court, and using the dressing room as a confessional (unburdening themselves to the spirit of Marilyn Monroe, of course). But more than a pop teenage girl world, this cult of femininity meets its match when they put a hex on someone – and it works. Shaken by the potential of what they’ve done, the group turns a questioning eye on its leader, Apple (Lili Reinhart, Riverdale). Is she the real toxic influence, or are they all under a spell? Executive produced by Film Independent member Randy Manis.
HORSEGIRLS
When You Can Watch: July 17
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Lauren Meyering
Stars: Gretchen Mol, Lillian Carrier, Jerod Haynes
Why We’re Excited: Maybe some of us just learned today that hobbyhorsing is a gymnastic sport. Like, the toy horse on a stick. For Margarita (Lillian Carrier, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay) it’s the thing she loves to do, showcasing traditional equestrian moves without the benefit of a live horse. Margarita is 22 and autistic, pushed into an escalated path to self-sufficiency in the wake of a cancer diagnosis for her mom, Sandy (Gretchen Mol, Boardwalk Empire). Margarita lands a job at the Halloween store, but would rather break into her neighbor’s house to get her hands on the coveted hobbyhorse. That’s how she meets her coach (Jerod Haynes, The Greatest) and joins his competitive hobbyhorse dance team. Film Independent member Alix Madigan is a Producer.
HADESTOWN: THE MUSICAL
When You Can Watch: July 24
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Brett Sullivan
Stars: Reeve Carney, Eva Noblezada, Patrick Page
Why We’re Excited: Anaïs Mitchell’s concept album turned Grammy- and Tony-winning stage production is captured on screen and showing in theaters, exploring the Greek myths of Orpheus and Eurydice in a New Orleans jazz club. Under the direction of veteran Brett Sullivan, who has notably captured prominent musicals like Newsies and Billy Elliot for the screen, audiences get a front row seat to the doomed love stories that intertwine through music, schemes and smoke. Orpheus (Reeve Carney, House of Gucci) is young and poor, writing songs to incite the return of spring. When he falls hard for Eurydice (Eva Noblezada, Yellow Rose), she seems to return his affection. But the world is cold, and when the offer of protection and warmth comes from Hades (Patrick Page, In the Heights), Eurydice follows him underground – prompting Orpheus to go after her. Executive Produced by Film Independent member Tyler DiNapoli.
I WANT YOUR SEX
When You Can Watch: July 31
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Gregg Araki
Stars: Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Daveed Diggs
Why We’re Excited: Spirit Award winner Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin) offers a love letter to Gen Z in the form of this dark comedy sexploration of power on multiple levels. “Gen Z doesn’t have sex anymore,” Araki reflected in an i-D interview. “In the times we live in, people are kind of afraid to make mistakes.” The adventures commence when Elliot (Cooper Hoffman from the Spirit Award-winning The Long Walk) lands a coveted job working for Erika Tracy (Spirit Award winner Olivia Wilde, Don’t Worry Darling). Working for the provocative, demanding artist and iconic cultural figure is less than thrilling, but when she singles him out for a wild physical experience without strings, it seems like a dream come true – at first. But the consequences of Elliot’s youthful fantasy rapidly kick him into a grownup nightmare that forces him to make some decisions.
THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER
When You Can Watch: July 31
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Stars: Masaki Suda, Masahiro Motoki, Munetaka Aoki
Why We’re Excited: We love a good murder mystery, and this looks like a great one – set in a Japanese castle 500 years ago (the Warring States period). It’s a game of cat and mouse with the titular samurai – Lord Murashige Araki (Masahiro Motoki, Departures) – keeping his prisoner alive for consultations about a series of unexplained deaths in the castle while under siege by a warlord named Oda. As a war strategist, Kanbei Kuroda (Masaki Suda, Cloud) offers insight while he is kept chained in the castle dungeon. Based on Honobu Yonezawa’s 2021 novel, the two match wits to uncover the truth while attempting to pursue their own distinct ambitions, and Lord Araki’s departure from samurai culture (keeping Kuroda alive rather than immediately beheading him) sets the stage for an unpredictable relationship.
PROGRAMMER’S PICK: SELEGNA SOL
When You Can Watch: July 1
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent Presents
Director: Anouk Moyaux
Why We’re Excited: From Film Independent Lead Programmer Jenn Wilson–
Selegna Sol is the debut feature of French director, Anouk Moyaux. It premiered at Cinéma du Réel in 2025 and had its US Premiere in the 2026 Los Angeles Festival of Movies. The film centers on a Mexican immigrant named Gibran who has lived and worked in the US long enough to finally be invited to become a US citizen. Even though he loves hanging out with his friends, he hates that he has to spend most of his life working to cover just basic living expenses in the US. Ultimately, he feels like returning to Tecate, Mexico, where he was born, might be a better lifestyle for him. The contemplation of work/life balance and how, for the most part, no one really has an appropriate amount of time for themselves is a concern that’s felt heavily here, but the film also does spend a lot of time with Gibran and his friends and emphasizes that it’s still possible to find joy in the shared moments we have with others and the small things in life. The film is beautifully shot in 16mm and has a terrific observational style, a loving ode to locales in Boyle Heights and Los Angeles’ East side.
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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Meet the 2026 Film Independent Changemaker Award Honorees
Film Independent’s Artist Development programs are all about uplifting new generations of artists. One of the magical things we’ve found over the 30-plus years of fostering talent, is that so many of those artists want to pay it forward. In 2023 we launched the Changemaker Award to give recognition to alumni of our Artist Development programs whose body of work across film and television has enriched our culture and whose generosity in mentoring the next generation of artists has left a lasting mark in our community.
We’re thrilled to announce that Alysa Nahmias, Robbie Pickering, and Harry Yoon will receive the 2026 Film Independent Changemaker Award.
The three will be honored at the 23rd Artist Development Showcase on July 21, 2026, at the Directors Guild of America Theater, an annual celebration that spotlights new short films from Film Independent Artist Development supported filmmakers.
This year’s class joins past Changemakers like Academy Award nominees Smriti Mundhra and Pamela Ribon, Spirit Award winners Andrew Ahn and Jomo Fray, Peabody winner Grace Lee, and Sundance’s Kim Yutani, among others.
“We are proud to celebrate visionary artists whose bold storytelling expands our cultural landscape and whose commitment to mentorship ensures a vibrant future,” said Angela C. Lee, Director of Artist Development, “Alysa Nahmias, Robbie Pickering and Harry Yoon exemplify artistic excellence, generosity and impact, demonstrating what it means to lead as changemakers in our industry.”
THIS YEAR’S HONOREES
Alysa Nahmias is an Emmy-winning filmmaker and founder of AJNA Films. Her directing credits include Cookie Queens, which recently premiered at Sundance and won the SXSW Festival Favorite Audience Award, the Emmy-winning Art & Krimes by Krimes for MTV Docs/Paramount+ and Unfinished Spaces, which won a 2012 Film Independent Spirit Award and is in the MoMA collection. Alysa’s producing credits include Wildcat and Unrest, among others. She is a frequent advisor for Sundance Catalyst, Film Independent labs and Global Media Makers and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and a Co-Founder of FWD-Doc. Alysa Nahmias participated in the 2013 Fast Track finance market and the 2020 Documentary Lab.
Robbie Pickering is an American screenwriter, director and producer. He is best known as the creator and showrunner of the Starz limited series Gaslit (2022) and for writing and directing the award-winning independent film Natural Selection (2011). He has also written on Search Party and Mr. Robot. Robbie Pickering was supported in the 2006 Screenwriting Lab, the 2007 Directing Lab and the 2007 Fast Track finance market.
Harry Yoon is a Korean American editor based in Los Angeles. Yoon received an ACE Eddie Award for his work on the pilot for Beef, the A24 and Netflix series starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong. Yoon edited the Academy and Golden Globe Award-winning feature Minari for director Lee Isaac Chung, which earned him an ACE Eddie nomination. His feature editing credits include the biopic Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua, The Fire Inside, directed by Rachel Morrison, Detroit, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and Thunderbolts*, directed by Jake Schreier. Yoon also worked on the first season of the HBO and A24 series Euphoria, created by Sam Levinson. Harry Yoon is an alumnus of Project Involve in 2004.
SHORTS TAKE THE STAGE
Beyond honoring this year’s Changemakers, the Showcase spotlights — and celebrates — what’s next. This year’s showcase includes six new short films from Film Independent Fellows, each with a unique take from visionary storytellers:
Dolce, “Fräknarna”
Director, J.M. Harper (Amplifier Fellowship 2025, Episodic Directing Intensive 2026)
A music video for Dolce’s song Fräknarna.
God Sleeps on Sundays
Writer/Director, Naishe Nyamubaya (International Programs 2024, Fast Track 2024); Producer, Sue-Ellen Chitunya (Project Involve 2016, 2016 Grant Recipient, Producing Lab 2020, Amplifier Fellowship 2023, Fast Track 2024)
A fierce rivalry erupts between a traditional healer and a Christian preacher who is hellbent on building his church on her land.
Haint
Producer, Selena Leoni (Project Involve 2021); Cinematographer, Joewi Verhoeven (Project Involve 2024)
When gentrifiers mysteriously begin to die, a Gullah Geechee handywoman who recently lost her home, must decide whether to help them or leave the newcomers to their fate.
Living with a Visionary
Producer, Mireira Vilanova (Project Involve 2021)
After 50 years of marriage, John must care for his wife while learning to live alongside her vivid hallucinations.
Permanent Guest
Writer/Director/Producer, Sana Zahra Jafri (International Programs 2023)
A young woman’s world is rattled by the arrival of a relative who forces her to weigh family obligations against her growing discomfort.
The What
Writer/Director/Producer, Christopher Nataanii Cegielski (Project Involve 2016, 2016 Grant Recipient, Episodic Directing Intensive 2026)
A routine job for two hitmen unravels when one of them recognizes the target as someone who ghosted him months ago.
Photos Courtesy: Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Sonny Valicenti/Jiwon Park
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‘Girls Like Girls’ in Full Bloom
Young love, it’s one of the sweetest kinds of stories to witness take shape and unfold. Naive characters form a connection that’s wildly unfamiliar to them, whereas—I’d bet—many moviegoers are more familiar with that phenomenal four-letter feeling. In films that explore this subject, in all its blissfulness and challenges, there’s both a heartfelt hopefulness and an understood apprehensiveness for the young lovers on-screen. Still, some love stories are remarkably more layered than others, as is the case of those with queer perspectives. On June 16, Film Independent spotlighted one of these perspectives in an advanced screening of the romance drama Girls Like Girls by writer/director Haley Kiyoko, her whirlwind lesbian story come to life. It was followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker and leading cast, Maya da Costa and Myra Molloy, moderated by Mia Vicinio.
Set in 2006 rural Oregon, the film follows teenage Coley (da Costa) who moves in with her estranged father Curtis (Zach Braff) after her mother’s passing. She meets Sonya (Molloy), a high-spirited girl, and the two form an unexpected romance. Self-doubt and social fears seep into their magnetic connection, which they confront and try to learn from for the chance of a blossoming relationship.
Girls Like Girls marks Hayley Kiyoko’s directorial debut and Maya da Costa’s feature-film acting debut. As for Myra Molloy, although not her first film acting role, it marks her first leading role. Each artist was in a unique position to bring something new to the project, and the result was an emotionally-driven and graceful portrait of two girls not only discovering their sexuality, but also a deep attraction for each other as individuals. It’s not often that we get films centered on women or girls falling in love. Kiyoko stated, “I think that representation is so important. We get a movie like this every ten years…and we deserve to be able to name ten movies at the top of our head that are two girls falling in love, or two women—two POC women—starring as leads,” adding, “that’s really challenging to do, so I’m just so immensely proud of their performances.”
Racial identity doesn’t play a significant role in the story, however the main characters are seen and shown as mixed race, and that detail adds to the discourse about the marginalization of queer love that the film explores. Vicinio asked Kiyoko about this intersectionality, “Alienation is a major theme in this film…being queer, being Asian, being mixed race—especially in a place as white as Oregon…and I was wondering how this story has helped you and also your fans to process these feelings of isolation, and the catharsis that comes with a story like this.” Kiyoko replied, “I think if I was any age being able to buy a ticket to see a movie like this…it would’ve absolutely changed my life…my experience knowing that I was queer at such a young age was so silent. I didn’t get to share it with people. It was through a glance, it was through a look, it was me overthinking a DM or AIM message, so it was really important for me to try to capture that internal process visually.”
Girls Like Girls is not just a film, it’s an intellectual property that Haley Kiyoko has been carefully crafting since the release of her hit song and viral music video of the same name back in 2015. It was absolutely inescapable at the time, especially in LGBTQIA+ spaces, cementing her as a pop icon in the community. Then, it was materialized into a young adult novel published in 2023 becoming a New York Times bestseller. Fast forward to now, the film adaptation, but it certainly wasn’t an easy journey. “I’m so proud to have not given up…they make it so hard for us to tell stories from different perspectives from different people—and yet we’re not niche! There were so many moments of pitching this film where people were like ‘You’re queer, you’re Asian, you’re a woman; who’s gonna watch this?’ I’m like—millionsof people.” Here’s hoping exactly that, because when all is said and done, it’s a romance drama for queer people just as much as it can be for allies.
Girls Like Girls is now in theaters nationwide! A special thanks to The Golden Globe Foundation, KCRW, and Focus Features for making this event possible. A shoutout to Focus Features for providing custom-made Girls Like Girls Pride flags for our members to wave this Pride Month, and each one after.
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Project Involve Fellow S. Lakmé Iyengar on Lensing Both Animation and Live Action
As the 2027 Project Involve cycle is open for applications, we are looking back at S. Lakmé Iyengar and her experience in Project Involve. Lakmé worked on the live action film Saving All My Love and the stop motion animation film Dormilón through Project Involve. Working on both films at the same time gave Lakmé a unique opportunity to reflect on the differences and similarities between live action and stop motion animation cinematography.
Saving All My Love captured Lakmé’s interest “with its exploration of the mother daughter relationship through hoarding and learning how to let go of physical objects to make place for those close to us.” The majority of the film took place in one house and Lakmé explained that because the film dealt with feeling physically overwhelmed by a lack of space, she wanted to make “the frames also feel claustrophobic and cramped.” With Dormilón, the film takes place in an old theater and draws inspiration from Vaudeville and early 20th century performers. Lakmé researched films from the early 1900s to take inspiration for the film’s cinematography. “The film takes place over one night but it’s a very eventful night so we talked a lot about color and lighting evolution over the course of the film which played a big role in setting up looks and visualizing Dormi’s journey in the story.”
Lakmé explains that “the core idea of cinematography stays the same in live action and stop motion animation; a cinematographer still has to work with camera and lighting in either medium.” Stop motion animation is much slower paced “which allows for more time to spend on framing and lighting each shot”, compared to the fast-paced nature of live action film making. Being in Project Involve, she got access to the story and script development of both films, which she says gave her “an opportunity to try new techniques and push myself to be a better collaborator.”
Lakmé grew up in Australia and after graduating with a degree in Communications and Production, she came to America to pursue a master’s degree in Cinematography from the American Film Institute. Since college, she was sure that cinematography was the job that best suited her and her interests. She was a Film Independent member for a few years before applying to Project Involve, and was drawn to the program because of Film Independent’s “commitment to independent storytelling and amplifying marginalized voices.”
Project Involve gave Lakmé the opportunity to learn: “I learn something from every project I work on. I really appreciated that Project Involve is a program that spends a significant amount of time on story and script development, and I learnt a lot about this process by listening in on these sessions, something I don’t regularly get to do as a cinematographer.”
Working on Dormilón was the first time she had been a part of a stop motion animation project from start to finish. “I learnt so much about the process of creating an animated film, how different departments collaborate and how I can make early contributions that can also benefit other departments and their decisions. These are all skills that I continue to use today.”
In addition to learning, being a part of Project Involve gave her the opportunity to build community: “I also loved getting to work with new collaborators and building those relationships over the course of these films.” Looking forward, Lakmé has a few projects that have completed principal photography, and she is currently in pre-production on a hybrid live action and stop motion project. Always looking to grow and learn, she says, “this will be a new style of collaborating for me and I’m excited to dive deeper into the process.”
Applications for the 2027 Project Involve program for both live-action and stop-motion animation are now open with a Non-Member deadline of July 13th. Members have until July 27th. Learn more about Project Involve here, and apply today.
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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How David Fortune’s ‘Color Book’ Went from Amplifier to Netflix
“I had been fully prepared for a seven-year journey.” Writer/Director David Fortune was ready for the long haul when making his award-winning debut feature Color Book. “I’d heard how Charlotte Wells developed Aftersunover seven years and was ready to commit to that kind of long road with Color Book.” Things didn’t exactly turn out that way.
Color Book follows Lucky (William Catlett) who just lost his wife, and now learns how to be a single parent for his son Mason (Jeremiah Alexander Daniels), who has Down syndrome. The action takes place mostly over a single day as the pair journey across Atlanta to see Mason’s first baseball game.
Fortune had worked as a camp counselor for teenagers with Down syndrome while in college and saw the unique relationships between the parents and children there. He had wanted to write a father and son story, and his time at the camp found their way into the story. “I drew from those experiences — from the conversations I’d had with parents, from hearing both their wounds and their joys. I made sure to write from that place.”
He applied to the Film Independent Amplifier Fellowship, sponsored by Netflix, while writing the script, and was accepted in 2023. “What I truly appreciated was how the program helped me nurture the film both from a screenplay perspective and a visual one,” Fortune said. “We worked through the script and the lookbook together to make sure the film was coherent in its vision.”
The Fellowship also came with a grant that Fortune used part of the grant to create a pitch video that got him into the AT&T Untold Stories competition, where he won $1 Million to make the film.
“The timeline was remarkably fast. I finished the screenplay in January, got into the fellowship in February, was accepted to pitch at the competition that February or March, pitched in June, won the million dollars, made the film over the rest of that year.”
The films power lies with its observational eye. Fortune said the aesthetic was inspired by the documentary photography of the likes of Gordon Parks, Carrie Mae Weems, and Saul Leiter, and how they investigated and showed the beauty in everyday human behavior. Because of that the film lets moments play out and is shot in wides. According to Fortune, “the goal wasn’t to make you fall in love with these characters, but to see them in their most human form.”
That observational style only works when you have captivating performances, and Fortune found them in William Catlett and Jeremiah Alexander Daniels’s work. He brought both actors in for a chemistry read and felt the connection immediately. Catlett felt it too. “That’s my son,” he told Fortune afterwards. “You can cast whoever you want — you’re the director — but that’s how I truly feel.”
Audiences felt that connection too. The film premiered at Tribeca in 2024, won the Audience Choice Award for Best US Feature at the Chicago Film Festival, garnered a Variety “10 Directors to Watch” nod for Fortune in 2025, and was picked up by Netflix, the co-sponsor of the Amplifier Fellowship.
“David Fortune fully embraced every opportunity within the Film Independent Amplifier Fellowship funded by Netflix, which provides grants and creative support that empower artists and their projects to thrive,” said Angela C. Lee, Director of Artist Development for Film Independent. “We are immensely proud to have supported David and this unforgettable film, and we’re thrilled that this journey has culminated with the release of the film on Netflix.”
Color Book premieres on Netflix and select theaters in New York City, Los Angeles, and Atlanta on June 19.
Featured image courtesy of Netflix.
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