Maybe you’ll spend this weekend madly finishing your taxes. Or madly buying vinyl on Record Store Day. Or madly catching up on Game of Thrones. But regardless of whether you’re favoring financial prudence, vintage music, or dragon queens, you can still take a little time to refresh yourself on the week’s film industry news, essays, and writings. You won’t know nothing (Jon Snow) after you read these!
This Week’s Good Reads (Week of April 8, 2019)
Amazon Prime Video Launches Shorts Festival for Underrepresented Filmmakers (via Jordan Moreau for Variety)
A new festival outlet for diverse voices.
Netflix In Talks To Acquire Hollywood’s Historic Egyptian Theatre From American Cinematheque (via Mike Fleming, Jr. for Deadline)
Netflix’s world takeover hits the cinema(theque).
What Is a Grip? The Few Women Doing the Job in Hollywood Explain (via Cara Buckley for The New York Times)
The gals who grip.
From Bad Robot receptionist to Sundance darling: What rising-star writer-director J.D. Dillard learned from J.J. Abrams about storytelling (via KC Ifeanyi for Fast Company)
A studio-to-indie-to-studio success story.
How First Reformed’s Success Actually Points to a Dark Future for Independent Film (via Alex Ross Perry for The Talkhouse)
A stark reality on indie distribution opportunities.
Inside Amazon’s Plan for Donald Glover’s Secret, Rihanna-Starring Movie (via Nicole Sperling for Vanity Fair)
The surprise movie drop is here.
How Soon Will the Movie Streaming Bubble Burst? (via Jason Bailey for Flavorwire)
How many niche movie streaming sites are too many niche movie streaming sites?
New Releases
Movies from our April Movie Picks out this week:
- Her Smell (Gunpowder & Sky)
- Little (Universal Pictures)
- The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Screen Media Films)
- Missing Link (Annapurna Pictures/United Artists)
- Sauvage (Strand Releasing)
- Stockholm (Smith Global Media)
- Teen Spirit (Bleecker Street Films/LD Entertainment)
A video worth watching
A look back at CGI’s roots (via Vashi Nedomansky)
The Ultimate History of CGI – 18 Groundbreaking Effects from Vashi Nedomansky on Vimeo.
How ’bout you? Read anything good this week?
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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.