The concept: every month, 1 film selected from submissions all over the world, under one minute, and a grand champion announced at the end of the year. Check out SWEEPER, the winner for March. "Astonishing" is a good word for it. You've got a minute to spare to see something astonishing, don't you?

Renderyard 1 minute Film Festival

As anyone who is involved with the entertainment industry knows, sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands to make things happen. That is exactly what Tonisha Johnson did, starting her own company, TOMI Enterprises, in 2007. Not yet two years old, TOMI already has one successful film festival under its belt (there's a festival recap here), a second one in the works, and a wealth of resources set up to bring business knowledge to people in the entertainment industry. With a focus on minority and underground filmmaking, TOMI is setting the pace for showcasing and promoting emerging talents. Check out this inspiring and personal interview with Tonisha about the challenges and rewards of DIY business.

Click here for the Sell Sheet for
'She's Got It' - Produced by Fear No Man Productions
Winner of Best Feature at the 2008 TOMI Film Festival.


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"The ‘Other’ Movie Industry: How TOMI Brought Indie Urban Film to the NBA All Star Weekend"

SXSW has a pretty great blog promoting the music component of the fest, but not so for the film section. Fortunately, film and film fest fans online have taken over and the 2008 SXSW film festival is now chugging along full-steam ahead through the world-o-blogs. Here are my Top 5 blog picks for festival coverage.

1. Great set of interviews with SXSW participants, including an interview with early fest favorite We Are Wizards director Josh Koury.

http://www.indiewire.com/people/2008/03/sxsw_08_intervi_12.html

2. Probably the most comprehensive online coverage of the fest can be found at Spout. Interviews, festival news and more from their roving correspondents.

http://blog.spout.com/

3. Great coverage from the films to the parties can be found at:

http://www.cinematical.com

4. Indie film stalwarts Film Threat provide all things SXSW at:

http://sxsw.bside.com/2008/

5. Not coming to a theater near you has just a few reviews of the fest films so far, but should be building over the week. And while some of these films will be coming to a theater near you, a bunch will not, so check this out while you can.

http://www.notcoming.com/

Long the cultural beat in the heart of Texas, Austin is just now enjoying its status as Indie film capital of America. As far back as Richard Linklater’s Slackers (1991), Austin has offered glimpses of a small but vibrant film scene, one that has now fully flourished. All the stars have aligned and Austin is the city to be in if you are a young filmmaker.

Here are 5 reasons why:

1. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
Every scene needs a venue. Austin has the best. Austinites may take this theater for granted but for those of us living in Muliplex hell, the Alamo sounds too awesome for words. Food and beer, watching movies in a mature environment, with programming that covers everything form first run to eccentric audiovisual events. Want to watch Showgirls with David Schmader’s live running commentary? You can at the Alamo. Am I out for a movie, or have I died and gone to heaven?

2. SXSW
Every scene needs a festival. Austin’s South By Southwest is the little fest that could—and did. Already having proven its bankability—2002’s Spellbound broke at SXSW and went on to an Oscar nom—SXSW gets better every year and has yet to sacrifice any of its credibility. Programming at the fest manages to ride the fine line between hipness and accessibility, providing a vibrant venue for emerging filmmakers.

3. University Of Texas Film Institute
Every scene needs a draw for the local talent and UTFI may be one of Austin’s biggest as far as film is concerned. The institute has been aggressive in looking for opportunities for their students, partnering with Burnt Orange Productions and giving students a chance to work on feature length films (2005’s The Quiet was a part of this initiative).

4. Filmmaking Frenzy
Every scene needs a website. This is one of the best online sites for young filmmakers. Constant competitions are running with videos posted online. If you live in the area you can check out Frenzy events at the Alamo; if you don’t, check out the site for a dose of inspired filmic antics.

5. Congress Avenue Bats
Every scene needs its bat cave. Under Austin’s Congress Avenue bridge is the world’s largest urban bat hangout. The bats have even spawned their own music fest—Batfest. Peak seasons sees over 1 Million bats congregate and at sunset these little devils whoosh out from under the bridge, creating a spectacle that is equal parts inspiring, beautiful and a little creepy. A bat colony, it’s just so cool.

The weekend was a 1-2 Film awards knockout, with the Indie Spirit Awards running on Saturday, followed by the the Academy Awards on Sunday. Crossover nominations for both were high this year, which must have resulted in a ton of tuckered out stars and starlets by the time Sunday night rolled around.

Having the two events back-to-back highlights how great the indies have fared this Oscar season. The Coen brothers No Country For Old Men proved the night’s big Oscar winner, with Best Picture and Director nods, while the crowd-pleaser Juno cleaned up at the Indie Spirit taking Best Picture, Best Actress (for Ellen Page) and Best Screenplay for Diablo Cody. Cody was a double winner: she grabbed the Oscar screenplay, too.

In some ways the two awards seem almost a reversal: the feel-good blockbuster taking over the Indie Spirit and the more edgy, but critically acclaimed, No Country For Old Men cleaning up at Oscar. Indeed, this might have been the year when the Indies most openly embraced big box-office returns and the Oscars pretty much followed the critics point for point, even giving the Best Actress nod to Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose.

The sea change can be attributed to a number of factors.  A big one: the huge-grossing comedies of Judd Apatow are fun but nobody is ready to give them an Oscar nod. More crucially, the sort of Important ‘A’ pictures that usually dominate Oscar season (such as Meryl Streep’s Lions For Lambs and Rendition) have had such a tepid audience and critical response that a nomination would be simply silly. Indeed, Hollywood has failed abysmally throughout 2007 to put out a thinking-pic that also attracts an audience.

If these trends keeps up, in a few years the Indie Spirit and Academy Awards may want to combine events with one big weekend extravaganza, hosted by, of course, Jon Stewart and Rainn Wilson.

When I was invited to start blogging for IPEX, most of my film reading came from the trades: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, IMDb Pro, Worldscreen, and C21, with the odd issue of Film Comment or Cahiers du cinema thrown in when I found the time to feel cultured. Over the last month, I’ve really enjoyed the chance to catch up on the state of online film blogging and am pleased to report that it’s a wild and woolly world out there with a lot of gems and really cutting edge information if you know where to look.  This week, I’m happy to present a satisfactorily comprehensive directory of film blogs, categorized under headings that make sense to me.

Coming soon: I get all Andrew Sarris on the list and offer my top picks, and top picks for industry professionals who are looking for the kind of alternative industry perspective blogs can provide.

Have I missed your blog?  I’d love to visit it, so please leave me a comment.

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"The Film Professional’s Guide to the Blogosphere: A directory of film blogs"

This is Part 1 of an ongoing series examining websites designed for indie film producers.

MyMoveNetwork.com, a relatively undiscovered indie web gem, is a good place to start if you’re trying to understand some of the innovative ways passionate film fans are making the much ballyhooed “indie film web revolution” more than just hype.

Unlike director-oriented sites like YouTube, MMN is outstanding in the way it encourages filmmakers to put not just their films online, but their entire production ‘company’ as well. Perhaps best described as a social networking service for the professionals, amateurs, friends, and students who make indie films happen, MMN is much more than a quick internet diversion: it’s a great vision of how the web can build professional artistic communities.

How does it work?  MyMovieNetwork co-founder Ben Pinkhasik gives us a quick tour…

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"The Indie Film Web Revolution Part 1: Interview with MyMovieNetwork"