Life is busy Network. Assassinations, censorship, corporate chicanery. It can be tough to stay up-to-date on film industry news, profiles, analysis, and advice. That’s why we’ve curated some essential reads you may have missed over the past month. So take some time to catch up with this month’s good reads!
This Month’s Good Reads (September 2025)
A Massive List of Fall 2025 Grants, Labs & Fellowships (via Laura Moss for No Film School)
The seasons change, but filmmakers still need money.
Hearing for the First Time: Zeinabu irene Davis on the rejuvenation of Compensation (via Brandon Streussnig for Letterboxd Journal)
The film is finally getting a release 31 years later.
No Courage, No Heart, No Brain (via Nicholas Russell for Defector)
A critic heads to Vegas for an AI-assisted, runtime-reduced, controversy-making visit to The Wizard of Oz at Sphere.
The Deadest Dead-End Job in Hollywood? (via Katie Kilkenny for The Hollywood Reporter)
How Production Assistants are navigating industry contraction.
Comedian John Early Wanted to Play an Ingénue — So He Made His Own Movie (via Esther Zuckerman for GQ)
The alt comedy star on his debut as director and leading lady.
Do Media Organizations Even Want Cultural Criticism? (via Charlotte Klein for Intelligencer)
Film critics: An endangered species?
Production Gear: A Primer on How Tariffs Inflate Costs and Erode Choice, and Why Costs Will Never Come Back Down (via David Leitner for Filmmaker Magazine)
How much more are you going to spend on gear?
30 Years Later, Showgirls’ Impact Is Everywhere — From Taylor Swift to Euphoria (via Marie Lodi for Elle)
The legacy of the cult classic, as told by its costume designer Ellen Mirojnick.
The Exacting Magic of Film Restoration (via Anthony Lane for The New Yorker)
Excavating “lost” films in Italy.
Henry Jaglom, Indie Director Who Mined the Personal, Dies at 87 (via Alex Williams for The New York Times)
Remembering an under-sung (yet prolific) actor-turned-filmmaker.
One Battle (for IMAX Tickets) After Another (via Chris Stanton for The Ringer)
Inside the fandom of big (no, really, BIG) screens.
This Latest “AI Actress” Sales Pitch is Giving Us a Serious Headache (via William Hughes for The A.V. Club)
Do you really need to be nervous about “Tilly Norwood”?
Trump Takes Tariff War to the Movies by Announcing 100% Tax on Foreign-Made Films (via Wyatt Grantham-Phillips for PBS News)
Oh cool, more tariff talk!
25 New Faces of Independent Film 2025 (via Filmmaker Magazine)
The emerging filmmakers of tomorrow.
In case you were ignoring us (aka blatant self-promotion)
Stowe Story Labs SAGindie Fellowship
Applications are open for the 2026 season!
Robert Redford: Goodbye to the Sundance Kid
Mourning the loss of the actor, director, activist, and mentor to countless indie filmmakers.
Filmmaker Interview: director Ben Leonberg and producer Kari Fischer of Good Boy
We talked to the filmmakers behind the new horror film told from a dog’s POV.
Videos worth watching
How to spot a festival scam, and a peek behind the curtain of FilmFreeway (via Directors Notes)
How ’bout you? Read anything good this month?
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If you’re an independent filmmaker or know of an independent film-related topic we should write about, email blogadmin@sagindie.org for consideration.
