News

Mark St. Cyr & Sonja O’Hara Leading Indie TV Pilot

Exclusive: With greenlight-chasing television producers continuing to take tips from independent film production, a pilot starring Mark St. Cyr (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series) and Sonja O’Hara (Doomsday) is launching. 300 Feet Tall, billed as magical realism meets musical drama, will also star 12-year-old neurodivergent stage actress Colette Goodman and Drew Moerlein (Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra). Filmed in primarily in Redqood National Park, the pilot follows Mika (O’Hara), who, having suffered physically and mentally at the hands of her partner, Glenn (St. Cyr), is forced to come to terms with her choices when she is transported to a mythological land where she meets a younger version of herself (Goodman). Michelle Vezilj created and directed the pilot, which is being shopped to networks and streamers this summer. Kelly Price is the executive producer, with Moerlein, Kathy Sue Holtorf...

The company’s new feature Ricky, directed by Rashad Frett, is building on the short of the same name that premiered at Sundance 2023.

New York-based Ramfis Myrthil, whose credits include Independent Spirit Award-nominated Cicada, is in Cannes with the international launch of his new company Ramfis Productions.

The company’s new feature Ricky, directed by Rashad Frett, is building on the short of the same name that premiered at Sundance 2023. The team is gearing up to shoot the feature version of Ricky in the US this summer, most likely in New Jersey. The story is about an ex-offender who is...

Sundance revealed the lineup for its Shorts and Indie Episodic programs today, featuring new work from filmmakers like Paul Feig and Ken Marino, “Roma” star Yalitza Aparicio Martinez, and Henry Winkler.

Sixty-four films were selected for the Shorts program from a record-high pool of 10,981 submissions. Spanning fiction, non-fiction, and animated works from artists in the U.S. and around the world, the program features both new and returning filmmakers. Aparicio Martinez will headline Mexico’s “Sweatshop Girl,” from writer-director Selma Cervantes, playing a seamstress who must hide her pregnancy to avoid getting fired. The Feig-produced “Help Me Understand” stars “The Office” actress Kate Flannery and Ken Marino among its ensemble cast. Angela Trimbur wrote and co-stars in “Mirror Girl,” while Sarafyan appears in the sci-fi short “Power Signal.”

The Indie Episodic lineup spotlights rising creators of independently produced content for episodic platforms. Four projects were chosen this year, including “Willie Nelson and Family,...

Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to “Cicada,” Matthew Fifer’s Brooklyn-set debut feature, which premiered last year at several festivals, including Frameline, Outfest and BFI London.

“Cicada” was written and directed by Fifer and Kieran Mulcare. The film was inspired by events in Sheldon Brown’s and Fifer’s own lives. Fifer headlines the film alongside Brown, who also co-wrote the script.

The film follows Ben (Fifer), a young bisexual man who, after a string of unsuccessful and awkward encounters, meets Sam (Brown), a man of color struggling with deep wounds of his own. As the summer progresses and their intimacy grows, their pasts begin to crawl to the surface.

“We’re thrilled to be working on Matt’s debut feature ‘Cicada.’ It’s a thrilling and promising new voice, one that fits our family of auteurs,” said Marcus Hu of Strand Releasing.

The film also stars Cobie Smulders,...

Queer drama received its UK premiere at the London Film Festival.

Peccadillo Pictures has secured UK and Ireland distribution rights to LGBTQ+ romantic drama Cicada in a deal struck directly with the producers. 

Peccadillo hopes to give the US feature, directed by Matthew Fifer and Kieran Mulcare, a theatrical and digital release in spring 2021.

Cicada was meant to open BFI Flare: London Lgbtiq+ Film Festival in March but saw its world premiere postponed when the even was cancelled in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. It eventually debuted at Outfest Los Angeles in September and went on to play a raft of festivals,...

Christina Ricci, Tom Hopper, and David Dastmalchian will star together in the independent action-thriller “Can’t Stop the Dawn.”

Ambi Distribution, the worldwide sales arm of the Ambi Media Group, is handling global sales and is introducing the project to buyers at the Cannes Virtual Market. Principal photography on “Can’t Stop the Dawn” will commence this fall in New Orleans.

Marianna Palka is directing “Can’t Stop the Dawn.” Tony Armer, Marty Poole (Fairway Film Alliance), Michael E. Brown, Ramfis Myrthil and Jory Weitz are producing. Executive producers are Santosh Govindaraju and Dan Reardon.

Tony Armer wrote the screenplay, based on an original concept by Dale Pople. Ricci will portray a terminally ill single mom recruited by Hoper’s mysterious agent to assassinate Dastmalchian’s ruthless leader of a human trafficking ring for the promise of a better future for her son.

Palka said, “I am so passionate about ‘Can’t Stop the Dawn.

Tribeca Film Institute (Tfi) and Pond5 have once again teamed up to offer microgrants to indie filmmakers and artists.

The grants, which go as high as $7,500, are intended to help storytellers during “in-between” phases of their projects, such as research, festival travel or community screenings. They’re the kind of unexpected costs that can lead to financial heartache for artists who are already tight on cash.

“These filmmakers shouldn’t be putting stuff on their personal credit cards and in many cases they simply can’t,” said Amy Hobby, executive director of Tribeca Film Institute. “We want to help with the things that don’t often make it into an independent film budget.”

Seven projects were selected for the awards from a pool of more than 200 applicants. Artists being honored are Erika Cohn and Angela Tucker (“Belly of the Beast”); Zoe Miranda (“Blue Hour”); Matt Fifer, Kieran Mulcare, Ramfis Myrthil...

Exclusive: A feature film about the courageous U.S. activist Rosa Parks is on its way and it just may mark the first time a biopic about Parks will make it into this nation’s theaters. The filmmakers — Winter State Entertainment and a large producing team– are fast-tracking the project to go before the cameras in 2019.

There have been some projects in the past, but not a feature biopic: In the early 2000s, there was an Academy Award nominated documentary Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks (2001) and then Parks herself collaborated on the TV movie The Rosa Parks Story which starred Angela Bassett as the mighty civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat in the whites only section of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s. In addition, Julie Dash and Invisible Pictures announced At The Dark End of the Street which was focusing on...

Exclusive: Ina Petersen’s La-based international management and production firm, Inner Voice Artists, has acquired rights to Danish filmmaker Nicolo Donato’s latest script, Tolerance. The company, which was formed earlier this year to create opportunities for actors and filmmakers from around the world, has also signed Donato to its growing roster.

Tolerance is inspired by the racially-charged 2017 events in Charlottesville where a woman was fatally injured. It’s described as a powerful story of a man who decides to leave the Ku Klux Klan after discovering that he has a daughter. In his quest for redemption, he learns how love sometimes conquers all.

Donato’s previous credits include Brotherhood, which was nominated for two Bodil Awards as well as winning two major prizes in Rome. He also helmed 2016’s Across The Waters, and is known for socially impactful work.

Donato will direct Tolerance with Petersen producing alongside Ramfis Myrthil...