The 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards are only given to films produced under $20 million. The awards show will air on February 26, 2011 live on IFC with Joel McHale hosting the event.

The drama Winter’s Bone had the most nominations, with seven nods including Best Feature. Winter’s Bone is directed by Debra Granik and stars Jennifer Lawrence, as a girl searching for her lost father in a rural Arkansas town filled with drug pushers.

“The Kids Are All Alright”, which stars Annette Bening and Julianne Moore, received five nominations, including Best Feature.

Check out the list of nominees for the 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards. www.spiritawards.com

James Bond seems set to live another day after debt-ridden film giant MGM secured a deal to end months of financial deadlock, which put the latest 007 movie on ice along with the studio’s fate.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, whose catalogue includes the Bond franchise as well as the Pink Panther and Rocky series, announced a debt-restructuring rescue deal late on Friday while rejecting an offer from billionaire Carl Icahn.

In a statement the legendary studio – famous for its trademark roaring lion logo – said its lenders had “overwhelmingly approved its proposed plan of reorganisation” with US firm Spyglass Entertainment.

Spyglass was favoured over a rival offer by Icahn, who reportedly owns about $800m of MGM’s debt, to merge the studio with film producer Lionsgate in which he is the largest shareholder.

“MGM will now move expeditiously to implement that plan, which will dramatically reduce its debt load and put the company in a strong position to execute its business strategy.

Struggling

“MGM is appreciative of the lenders’ support,” said the MGM statement.

The studio, with a 4 000-strong back catalogue that also includes The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain, has been struggling for the last few years, and its owners put it up for sale a year ago.

Several candidates emerged, including US-Canadian studio Lionsgate, as well as America’s Liberty Media, Australian-born US media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, and India’s Reliance Entertainment.

If the plan announced late on Friday is approved, MGM is expected to emerge from bankruptcy with 95% of its capital in the hands of creditors led by US bank JPMorgan Chase.

The remaining five percent would be held by Spyglass, which notably produced Clint Eastwood’s last film Invictus.

In April, uncertainty over the debt-ridden studio’s future forced the suspension of work on the latest James Bond movie, the 23rd in the long-running franchise.

The British production company behind the project said they had put work on hold “indefinitely” after MGM failed to attract a buyer. There was no immediate word on when filming could resume

 Source: http://www.channel24.co.za

Released at the end of September, Telefilm’s International Market Report revealed that there was an increase in foreign sales achieved by Canadian producers and distributors at international markets and festivals where Telefilm organizes and runs the Canada Pavilion: the European Film Market at the Berlin Film Festival, MIPTV, the Cannes Film Market and MIPCOM. Despite the economic downturn during the year, the report highlights the following, every dollar invested abroad by Telefilm generated $16 in sales for Canadian companies. 

Other Highlights:

Telefilm invested about $1.2M in support of Canadian companies’ participation at international markets. Every dollar invested by Telefilm within the framework of its foreign activities generated $16 in sales deals for Canadian film companies, compared with $11 in 2008 and $9 in 2007. If we include pre-sales and probable sales (that is, sales deals likely to be closed quickly after the market), this figure jumps to $100 for every dollar invested.

In 2009, total sales and pre-sales of Canadian films and television programs stood at $17.6M, a 26% increase over the $14M earned in 2008. Negotiations conducted during the international markets generated $90.7M in probable sales. This brings the total of sales, pre-sales and probable sales to $108.3M, a 27% increase over the previous year’s total of $85M.

In 2009, the Cannes Festival was the most profitable market in terms of the ratio of sales, pre-sales and co-production/co-venturing agreements per dollar invested: every dollar invested by Telefilm generated more than $333 in economic activity. 

“There’s no doubt that Canada’s audiovisual industry benefits from the strategic support it obtains abroad from Telefilm,” said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. “We’re very pleased to see how dynamic our companies are when they negotiate co-production and co-venturing agreements with foreign partners. Telefilm’s activities at international markets provide a real showcase for Canadian talent abroad and prove that Canadian products can compete on the world stage.”

2009 International Market Report:  http://bit.ly/9bq2uM

Source: Telefilm Canada

How to make the transition from the editing room to the marketplace.

Picture this! By some miracle to end all miracles, born of equal parts luck and blind determination, you’ve managed to rise above the never-ending barrage of questions from “concerned” friends and family who’ve always thought your talk about making movies was reckless. You’ve put together a cast and crew, refined your script, found some financing and in the process, you’ve even figured out how to ignore all your significant other’s not-so-subtle hints that a career selling life insurance really wouldn’t be that bad. To be honest, looking back, even you aren’t really sure how you pulled it off. Yet, despite all of the concerns and self doubt, you’ve somehow managed to make the impossible possible. You’ve made your first feature film! And, by definition, you’re finally a real filmmaker.

So, as your significant other drinks celebratory champagne with your family, friends and whatever members of your cast and crew are still speaking to you at the wrap party, you and I both know there is one nagging thought still rattling around in the back of your mind. It’s the same thought shared by every independent feature filmmaker. You’re asking yourself, how am I going to distribute this thing?

As a feature filmmaker, your distribution strategy will fall into one of two categories. Either your movie will be picked up, marketed and sold through various outlets by one of those distribution companies you read about in the trades, or you will sell it yourself. This is the major difference between traditional distribution and self-distribution. Regardless of which path you take, there are certain fundamental steps you must complete to ensure the film makes a smooth transition from the edit suite to the marketplace.

Preparing to Find a Distributor

When finding a distributor, many filmmakers partner with sales representatives, agents, lawyers or consultants to help get their movies seen and, hopefully, sold. It is during this time that the representative will often furnish the filmmaker with an extensive checklist of deliverables that include (with some variation): the movie master, talent agreements, high resolution digital photos for use in promotion, a credit lock, talent bios and press kits, a copyright registration form, chain of title and just about every other legal clearance the distributor can think of to minimize liability. One area where first-time filmmakers often stumble is in properly securing the rights to each and every bit of music included in their flick.

To continue reading this artcle please visit  www.independent-magazine.org

By Christine Kearney   Reuters – http://bit.ly/b9ppTy      

NEW YORK – Like an actor waiting for a big break, the nascent market for watching independent movies on TV video-on-demand channels or online via streaming or downloads still needs a big hit to make believers out of moviemakers.

Last month, the Tribeca Film Festival launched an unusual effort to acquire films and release them on video-on-demand (VOD) in an effort to help kick-start the market. Typically, film festivals screen movies, not distribute them.

As the festival wound down earlier this week, the success of Tribeca’s effort was still unknown. But market players said VOD and online sales are not likely a financial game-changer anytime soon for the beleaguered independent film industry that in recent years has fallen on hard times as too many indie movies competed for space in too few theaters.

“They (VOD and Web downloads) have generated meager revenue at best. The total revenue has not been up until now anything resembling financially compelling,” said Eamonn Bowles, President of Magnolia Pictures.

Still, Tribeca organizers and industry executives agree the old financial model of a film creating buzz at festivals and being acquired for theatrical release needs changing.

“So many filmmakers still want that traditional route, they want to be able to walk down that red carpet at a cinema,” said Tribeca’s chief creative officer Geoff Gilmore.

“But I can’t make that world exist any longer when it doesn’t,” he added. “I can’t tell (filmmakers), ‘you are going to have a number of different buying opportunities’ when in fact it has been more and more mitigated…so we are trying to create new opportunities.”

Tribeca’s distribution arm, called Tribeca Film, acquired more than a dozen films and over half were shown at the festival, including “Climate of Change” and “Metropia.”

They were offered on VOD via cable, satellite and telecom providers that reach some 40 million homes and fans could watch them at the same time as New York moviegoers at the festival.

Separately, but also for the first time, Tribeca offered eight full-length films online at a flat fee of $45.

Festival organizers aren’t yet saying how many people paid to watch the movies, but its experiment followed other, smaller efforts including one at the recent Sundance Film Festival, which offered five movies for rental at $3.99 on YouTube. It attracted little revenue.

FILMMAKERS GIVE MIXED REVIEWS

Tribeca filmmakers gave VOD and Web downloads mixed reviews and said they hoped audiences would still be able to see their films on the big screens for which they were made. Some wondered whether a conflict of interest might arise if a festival promoted their own films more than ones they did not acquire. Director Josh Sternfeld, whose “Meskada” played in the festival, told Reuters he thought filmmakers should “keep their minds open to how films get seen” but also recognized watching a film in a theater was “special.”

Others were more reluctant, including director Ricki Stern of “Joan Rivers — A Piece of Work,” who said “it’s wonderful that movies can get out to the masses on the Internet,” but quickly added that she still preferred cinemas.

“Movies should be in a big old movie theater with lots of popcorn,” she said.

Josh Braun, of Submarine Entertainment, which represented “Climate of Change”, said any festivals exploring their own distribution must be “extra vigilant to account for any perception that their own films might get preference.”

“And they have to be smart about it because they still want distributors to be coming to their festival and looking for movies for sale,” he said.

But while the industry waits to see if Tribeca’s VOD experiment captures much revenue, the festival is marching forward with plans to acquire more films throughout the year.

“What we are saying is ‘we realize that you are watching films on your computers and on cable, we are going to offer that to you,” said Nancy Shafer of Tribeca Enterprises, which funds the festival and the distribution arm. “Everyone is trying to figure out how to make filmmakers money…and how to rebuild the independent film business.”

(Additional reporting by Sharon Reich; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)