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Ten Classic Indies About Messy Lives in Sunny Los Angeles

Here are ten films that remind us of life in Los Angeles during a very particular and only recently bygone era: the '90s and early 2000s. These films are honest portrayals of what livin’ la vida loca LA-style is all about, whether they’re a glimpse into the lifestyles of the rich and famous, the realities of showbiz or struggles within SoCal’s toughest ‘hoods.

How to Submit Your Project to the Film Independent Spirit Awards

Just a reminder that tomorrow, September 18, is the Regular Deadline to submit your 2023 features and episodic projects to the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards. The extended Member Deadline is Tuesday, October 3. It bears repeating: you can submit your film or groundbreaking series, get nominated for a Spirit Award and win.

Member Lens: Documentary Filmmaker PJ Raval’s Texas-Sized Horse Wisdom

Hailing from the mostly white suburban-exurban neighborhoods of central California, first-generation Filipino-American documentarian PJ Raval’s eclectic career has taken him places to places up (a 100-foot tall army barrack tower), down (post-Katrina New Orleans) and all around (Texas, New York, Colorado). With three features under his belt and more on the way, the current University of Texas at Austin film professor and proud Film Independent Member’s 2023-24 dance card certainly isn’t growing any less full.

‘Frybread Face’ Premiere and Justin Simien Keynote Topline the Film Independent Forum’s Return

For the first time since the 2017 (hello fidget spinners!) Film Independent’s autumnal industry gathering—the Film Independent Forum—will be taking entirely live in person at its traditional home, the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles. Alternate venues, hybrid virtual sessions and a friggin’ global pandemic may have made things difficult to pin down in recent years, but this year all your #FiForum23 filmmaker panels, keynotes, industry networking events and more will be exactly where you expect. And they’ll be there for two days only,…

Labor Day Special: Seven Films About Summer Vacations Gone Off the Rails

From Olivia Colman’s fraught sojourn to the Greek Isles in The Lost Daughter to Jessie Buckley’s terrifying trip up the M5 to the English countryside in Men and M. Night’s bummer beaches in Old, taking a little “me time” away from home is often the single biggest mistake any movie character could possibly make. Horror, psychological drama, comedy, mystery, rom-com. The genre hardly matters. In film, the simple act of taking a vacation is rarely the relaxing, restorative interlude one hopes that it might be, placing uneasy…

The Fi Hall of Fame: Five Opening Title Sequences That Make Giving Credit and Artform

Since the early 2000s, there’s been a disappointing trend in movies away from full-fledged opening title sequences. Whether because of the desire to jump straight into the action or the impulse to keep the audience focused on a film’s story (rather than its creators), elaborate, artful opening title sequences, once commonplace, have become increasingly rare—which is too bad.

Sundance Deadlines are Approaching. Here’s What The Programmers Want You to Know.

It’s the question all indie filmmakers want to know: What do Sundance Film Festival programmers look for? Or more to the point: How do I get into Sundance? Funny you should ask! On August 15 Film Independent Education hosted an online session of its Filmmaker Tuesdays series featuring two of the storied fest’s curators: feature programmers Ash Hoyle and Sudeep Sharma.

Survey Says: Brad Pitt, Babies and Barf – Our Fellows’ Best Days on Set

Of course, 30 years of Artist Development also means the accumulated wisdom and collective experiences of three decades’ worth of Film Independent Fellows, which is why we’ve been canvassing our stellar roster of cohorts–past and present–to ask some of the most important questions related to their lives and careers, part of a new series we’re calling (until Steve Harvey sues us) Survey Says. We received so many replies that we’re going to follow-up with Part Two later on, but here’s what some of…