Resources
Sundance-created and curated resources we love
This Week
Resources for Black Filmmakers: A Guide
In honor of Black History Month, this guide is a compilation of funding sources, professional organizations, and more to help Black filmmakers succeed. Check out Black Public Media's Training & Funding programs (https://blackpublicmedia.org/training-funding/) featured in this guide.
Career Sustainability Panel: Beyond the Film Set
The Chicago Film Office, Seed&Spark and the Illinois Film Office present a panel discussion with creative entrepreneurs about creating and sustaining a film career.
Dear Producer: Producers Sustainability Survey Report
Dear Producer’s new survey provides a realistic look into what film producing is today — and why the producer as an essential part of filmmaking needs to be heard.
Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists
"Work of Art" is a 12-part workbook series that guides artists of all disciplines through every facet of building a successful and sustainable career – from career planning, time management, marketing, pricing, recordkeeping, funding, and developing a business plan.
Models of Sustainability for Immersive Media
Sarah Wolozin, Director of MIT's Open Doc Lab, dives into ways emerging media creators are trying to sustain themselves and what still needs to happen to best support them, especially now.
IDA's Breaking It Down: The Documentary Interview
Part of IDA's Gettin' Real 2020 Conference, this panel features five talented documentary filmmakers discussing how trust and personal connection between creators and protagonists are keys to expanding the cinematic voice of the documentary interview.
KSFEF Nonfiction Editors and Assitant Editors Database
How to Write an Extended Reality (XR) Script: The Future of Film
NYWIFT Programming Goes Digital: Video Library
365 Days: How to Become a Screenwriter in One Year
4 Lessons on Being a First-Time Director from a First-Time Director
The Ethics of Documentary Production in a Pandemic
10 Questions Every Filmmaker Should Ask When a Festival Opts to go Online
Ghetto Film School's Virtual Speaker Series
Lessons From The Screenplay's Breaking Bad: Crafting a TV Pilot Case Study
The Writer's Panel Podcast
How We Shot a 90-Minute Feature in Less Than 24 Hours AND Got Distribution
Creating Outside of the Coastal Hubs
IndieSeats Platform by Avenida Productions
The Position and Power of the Filmmaker in the Distribution Ecosystem
Producing with Care in the COVID Era: Considerations from the Community
Why Online Festivals During COVID-19 Are Essential
10 Exquisite Movies by Indigenous Filmmakers to Stream This Holiday
The Importance of Screenwriting Competitions
A Way of Life in Peril: Film Festival Distribution in the Age of COVID-19
Write Inclusion Fact Sheets
Walking the Wire: A Conversation on the Director Producer Partnership
"Decolonize" the Documentary
Why I’m Starting A New Film And Visual Culture Journal Made By And For Us
SEEN Journal: Issue 001 by BlackStar Fest (Preview)
How to Make a DIY Green Screen E-Book
How to Use The Black List to Break Into Screenwriting
New Orleans Film Society: South Summit Asset-Mapping
Fixing Existing Pipelines Isn’t Enough. It’s Time to Make New Ones
Double Exposure 2020: Investigative Documentary Investigated
Final Draft's Write On: A Screenwriting Prodcast
Designed to help you navigate the screenwriting industry, this podcast interviews working screenwriters, agents, managers, and producers to show you how successful executives and writers make a living writing and working with screenplays, and how you can use their knowledge to break into the industry.
Behind The Scenes: The State of Inclusion & Equity in TV Writing
This report captures the challenges besetting underrepresented TV writers and provides proven best practices to guide industry professionals.
A Practical Guide to Distributing Your Film Internationally: Who Else is Out There in the International Digital Space Beyond the “Big Guns”?
In this blog post, Wendy Bernfeld — Founder and Managing Director of Rights Stuff, co-author of "Selling Your Film Outside the U.S." (2014), and digital consultant specializing in Library and Original Content acquisition/distribution and international strategy/deal advice for traditional media, digital media, and web/cross-platform/transmedia programming — creates a practical guide for indie film distribution in the international digital space, outlines the shifts that COVID has brought out in this space, and provides a robust list of platforms to look into.
On-Screen Protocols & Pathways: A Media Production Guide to Working with First Nations, Métis and Inuit Communities...
Commissioned by imagineNATIVE, this highly-anticipated guide provides cultural principles, key findings from a national consultation process, and best practices for filmmakers, production companies, and funders who are telling Indigenous stories onscreen. Above all, this document highlights the importance of engaging Indigenous artists, and communities, as collaborative partners when telling Indigenous stories.
Dear Producer's Indie Film Town Hall
In this town hall, Dear Producer brought together a group of 20 independent producers with 40 of their favorite creative collaborators, such as cinematographers, production designers, costume designers, make-up arts, and first assistant directors, to discuss what the independent film world is up against during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways in which independent filmmakers can continue to create and thrive.
Distribution Advocates: A Distribution Cheat Sheet for Independent Filmmakers
In the world of acquisition and distribution, knowledge on how to navigate the process is not reaching independent filmmakers. To better arm independent filmmakers through this process, Distribution Advocates created a cheat sheet on distribution - a working document intended as a tool for independent filmmakers to parse distribution offers and negotiate licenses from a position of power.
Beyond Inclusion: The Critical Role of POC in the US Documentary Ecosystem
"Beyond Inclusion: The Critical Role of POC in the US Documentary Ecosystem" is researched and written by Sahar Driver, PhD. It outlines the relationship between documentary and social change, provides a critical overview of nonfiction film organizations led by and serving communities of color in the US, their impact in shaping a more equitable documentary sector, and how they advance non-fiction social justice filmmaking. Finally, it makes recommendations to funders and stakeholders on why and how these efforts should be resourced at this time.