Studios Go Shopping at the IFP Market
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

These are odd times for aspiring filmmakers — paradoxical times, in which first timers are able to create films more easily and affordably than ever before, but face a greater challenge in getting their works into a movie theater. For those determined to secure a theatrical release, film festivals used to be — and in many ways still are — the preferred route, submitting VHS tapes or DVDs to the top tier screening committees in hopes of being accepted to the schedule and capturing the attention of an interested film buyer.
But with ever more major stars and movie studios looking to indie films for Oscar prestige and DVD revenues, the stakes have risen exponentially. These days, the Sundance Film Festival is no longer an amateur-friendly, quality-above-all environment, but an increasingly high-stakes world where connections and brand names reign supreme.
The one towering exception to this rule can be found right here in Manhattan this weekend, with the IFP Market (www.ifp.org), which bills itself as the place for new and up-and-coming filmmakers to meet with established producers and distributors, and where a nobody can become a somebody based solely on the quality of their script, their partial footage, or their finished film.
Given the success of previous Market titles — from the Coen Brothers’ “Blood Simple” to such recent Oscar nominees as “Half Nelson” and “Maria Full of Grace,” and such notable independent success stories as Sundance winner “Me and You and Everyone We Know” — the Market has become a must-attend for many prominent industry figures.
Staged by the Independent Feature Project — a 28-year-old nonprofit organization with headquarters in New York and chapters all across the country, all focused on developing, supporting, and promoting independent filmmakers, and timed strategically to serve as a pit stop for producers, studio executives, and filmmakers returning from the Toronto Film Festival — the four-day event is one of the world’s only movie markets where creators can bring their works-in-progress for consideration, to be discussed and workshopped with industry insiders. It is to distributors and producers what most film festivals are to audiences: a chance to cast an early vote on a new wave of big-screen contenders. And beyond that, it serves as the kick-off to a larger “Independent Film Week,” which includes a six-day, star-studded seminar series open to all visiting film figures, as well as the general public.
“Festivals have a primary interest of engaging the audience, the people going to see the movies. And because of that, many festival organizers owe it to audiences to pursue established filmmakers who have already broken into the public consciousness,” the executive director of IFP, Michelle Byrd, said. But IFP Market is designed and developed primarily for the filmmaker, she said. “This is not a ‘market’ in the way that Cannes is, or American Film Market or Berlin — it’s not a business transaction between professional sellers. As far as I know, we are the only organization in the world that has a market where the principal people bringing their product are the individuals who made it.”
It’s a more informal, and thus infinitely more valuable, environment for filmmakers hoping to have their work seen, read, discussed, and financed. And over the past years, the IFP Market has grown substantially. This year, some 1,500 submissions were received, and some 170 were accepted, for the Sunday-to-Wednesday event, divided into three different sections: The “Emerging Narrative” section connects writers and directors with producers looking to acquire; the “No Borders International” section connects producers with packaged projects (signed writers, directors, actors)
with financiers looking to sign on, and “Spotlight on Documentaries” connects documentarians, sporting films at every stage of development, with financiers, major festivals, and various distribution outlets (theatrical, cable, and broadcast distributors). The real magic of the IFP Market is to be found in the sit-downs. Unlike most festivals, which only commit to putting a finished work on the big screen, the market has carefully set up more than 2,000 face-to-face meetings, before the event even begins. For a project to come to the market, an IFP staff member must express some interest in the submission, and that staff cheerleader, as Ms. Byrd puts it, represents the work and its creator at every step of the process, assembling a “project dossier” that is then distributed to visiting producers and financiers on the filmmaker’s behalf to arrange meetings between interested parties. Many filmmakers have credited these meetings, both the organized meet-and-greets and the more informal nightly parties, as essential steps in getting their works distributed, and producers have said the difference with the IFP Market is to be found in the pre-screening that occurs, ensuring that only interested parties are sitting down together.
“It’s really become the premiere place for me, as an independent producer, to connect with the people who have a hard time returning your phone call,” the producer of such recent independent titles as “Rocket Science” and “Real Women Have Curves,” Effie Brown, said. She plans to attend this year’s market with a partially packaged film and a detailed marketing kit (including a script, a sample piece of footage, and the concept of a teaser trailer) in search of a financier. “There’s a lot of other festivals and markets out there, but the IFP Market elevates the game. You know these are quality people and companies that actually want to read your script and look at your project and are looking to make a movie — and that’s rare because a lot of times people come to events, and want to attend the parties, but aren’t entirely serious.”
While registration is now closed for the Market itself, tickets are still available for the Filmmaker Conference (filmmakerconference.com), which serves as something of an open-to-the-public “state of the union” for the independent filmmaking community. Beginning Sunday with six presentations and panel discussions, including a conversation with director John Sayles and an event titled “Music Makes the Movie” featuring Moby and others, the conference continues through Friday, when several presentations will deal with the issue of fair use — a major issue for independent documentary filmmakers.