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Neon presents Spencer on just under 1,000 screens, Pablo Larraín’s well reviewed psychological drama about the weekend Princess Diana rewrote the future of the British monarchy. The film is said to be looking at a $2-$2.5 million opening with an 84% Certified Fresh critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes but a 50% audience score (albeit from fewer than 50 ratings).

Angus Finney As COVID’s shadow swept across the independent film market over the past 20 months, the banking and finance sector experienced a collective shudder: insurance was unavailable; completion bonders blocked COVID-19 cover; A-listers avoided shoots; and streamers shifted millions of eyeballs away from already shuttered cinemas.

J.K. Simmons has joined the cast of Sheridan O’Donnell’s debut dramedy feature “Little Brother,” TheWrap has learned exclusively.

Editor’s note: One in a series of remembrances on the 20 years since 9/11.

EXCLUSIVE: Riceboy Sleeps, the latest film from director, writer and actor Anthony Shim, has started production in and around Vancouver.

Claudia Eller Co-Editor-in-ChiefI spent last week in New York having face-to-face business meetings with entertainment executives after not being able to make direct contact over the past 15 months. Last time I was in Manhattan was February 2020, right before COVID-19 began wreaking havoc on my favorite city away from home, and of course on the entire country.There were residual signs of pandemic fallout: A number of restaurants long favored by industry folks had shuttered for good.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterA24 recently explored a possible sale, with the indie film studio floating an asking price of between $2.5 billion to $3 billion.Sources familiar with the situation tell Variety that the Oscar-winning shop behind “Moonlight” and “Uncut Gems” has engaged with numerous potential suitors for more than 18 months. It’s unclear if those discussions continue to be ongoing.

Christopher Vourlias The return to business at the Cannes Film Market hasn’t necessarily marked the return to business as usual, as sluggish foot traffic and empty stalls in the Palais des Festival can attest. But AGC Studios CEO Stuart Ford says the past year has hardly dimmed his confidence in the indie film business.“The independent financing and sales marketplace is still an incredibly fertile ground to finance content at a significant level,” he said.

EXCLUSIVE: Bondit Media Capital, which became an important funder for independent film and television during Covid, is partnering with Vancouver-based Arcana Studio to launch Bondit Canada Capital.

Remember “Blindspotting,” the 2018 comedy-drama indie that launched the careers of actor/writers/producers Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal? Well, in case you’ve forgotten, the film has been turned into a series by its creators, Diggs and Casal, who have gone onto things like “Snowpiercer,” “Hamilton” (Diggs), and “The Good Lord Bird,” “Bad Education” (Casal), respectively.

EXCLUSIVE: Here are your first look images from Brit indie film Venice At Dawn, which features House Of The Dragon star Fabien Frankel alongside This Sceptred Isle actress Greta Bellamacina.

With more than 50% of the U.S. adult population at least half vaccinated and studios plotting start dates, visions of a return to normalcy abound. So what’s the prognosis for independent film, when insurers and bank lenders remain on the sidelines even as production perks up?

ChloéZhao won best director for Nomadland at the 36th annual Independent Spirit Awards on Thursday. Accepting the award, Zhao said she was "humbled" to be in the company of her fellow nominees —Lee Isaac Chung (Minari), Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman),Eliza Hittman (Never Rarely Sometimes Always), and Kelly Reichardt (First Cow).

Anna Marie de la Fuente By forging key partnerships with filmmakers, financiers and distributors through the years, The Exchange, founded by veteran sales executive and CEO Brian O’Shea, has grown to become a leading worldwide sales and finance company.

Luke Coffee, a Dallas man with a background in TV acting, post-production work and film producing, has been identified and charged by the FBI as the much-photographed crutch-wielding assailant at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Independent film producers long used to raising money for movies they believe in report they are mostly underpaid, stressed and face an uncertain future, as the industry stands today. Those are among the findings of the first-ever Producers Sustainability Survey from Dear Producer, a digital forum for indie producers.

Christopher Yogi hopes to introduce audiences to a different Hawaii than the one they have grown accustomed to seeing onscreen. "A lot of movies that take place here take place in hotels and at popular tourist spots," explains the filmmaker.

More than 30 unpaid crewmembers on the indie film Please Give Me You have filed wage claims with the California Labor Commissioner’s office after the production was shut down last month when its financing fell through following a Covid-19 scare on the set. The film, written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour and which was to have starred Chloë Grace Moretz, had been prepping at the Rancho Grande preserve in Ojai, CA, when the plug was pulled December 11 before principal photography could begin.

Digital media company Cinedigm Corp. is to acquire the Fandor indie film streaming service as it expands its presence in the online space.

   Instead of despairing, Pilcher got creative. Juno Films, the movie’s distributor, pushed the debut back to the fall and set about fashioning a COVID-compliant release strategy for the indie drama.

It was a producer's worst nightmare. Brian Pitt was finalizing details for the shoot of After We Fell and After Ever Happy, the last two features in the hit young-adult romance franchise.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentWith the second wave of COVID-19 crushing hopes of an imminent strong and global restart for the entertainment industry, the resilience of the independent movie business will be tested during AFM’s virtual edition.The first major market to unfold since the virtual Cannes Marché du Film in June, the AFM was expected to host the launch of a flood of new product, but many companies are now planning to hold back some of their projects for early next year due

Dan Mirvish Big-budget studio features like “The Batman” or enormous Netflix series are able to self-insure against COVID and manage to shoot during the pandemic, even when cast or crew do test positive. But how are indies managing to cope with all the new union and various local safety protocols? Without liability protection, COVID insurance coverage or confident investors, it’s difficult to get a bond or secure bank financing.

Sure, Ted Hope sees downside in today's indie film business amid fast-expanding streaming giants. But it was ever thus, the legendary producer told a master class at the Toronto Film Festival on Friday.

Amanda N'Duka pmc-editorial-managerEXCLUSIVE: American Pie and American Beauty actress Mena Suvari will star in Inheritance, a family film from Mustard Seed Entertainment.John K.D. Graham wrote and directed the film, which follows estranged siblings returning to their familial estate to claim the inheritance their mother left behind.

The Zurich Film Festival has unveiled further details of its inaugural Zurich Market, a pop-up film market created to provide independent movies that would have screened at a major film festival an opportunity to present to international buyers. Zurich and Spain's San Sebastian Film Festival are collaborating on the event, which will see around 20 new indie titles screen in local cinemas during the Swiss festival from Sept.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorEXCLUSIVE: Production quietly began last month in London on pandemic-inspired feature Alone, which marks the directorial debut of Kirsty Bell, CEO of UK financier Goldfinch.

Abortion is a subject that runs through the core of Saint Frances, the debut film written by and starring rising talent Kelly O’Sullivan. But until O’Sullivan’s own parents read the press coverage of the film, they didn’t know that their daughter had had an abortion several years ago.

Jill Goldsmith A restart for film and television is bearing down but looming uncertainty around COVID-19 insurance has the business on edge.Pandemic insurance disappeared in March. Three months later there’s still no viable alternative to put many independent producers back on a path to completion bond backed financing.

Fernando Sulichin is used to doing things differently. The veteran producer and CEO of New Element Media has established a reputation for working with maverick auteurs — Oliver Stone, Sean Pean, Abel Ferrara, Michael Winterbottom, Larry Clark, Harmony Korine — and finding creative ways to get films made that don't fit the industry's cookie-cutter models.

Screen Media Ventures President David Fannon will be attending this year’s Cannes markets by way of Connecticut. He is, like so many of the now homebound buyers and sellers that plan on making the most of the Virtual Cannes Market, working from home offices, basements and kitchen tables.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorEXCLUSIVE: Archstone Entertainment will launch world sales on superhero indie film The Hyperions at the upcoming Cannes virtual market.Writer-director Jon McDonald’s previously announced action-comedy sees Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) star as Professor Ruckus Mandelbaum who in 1960 invents the ‘Titan badge’, which gives humans superpowers. He creates an unusual family of superheroes who rise to fame and prestige.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentAs the world slowly recovers from the coronavirus crisis and theaters start reopening, sales agents and distributors, whose business traditionally drives the independent film sector, are facing an uncertain future while trying to make the best of this year’s abbreviated festival circuit.

If you don’t know the name John Wildman, you’re missing out. Not only is he a talented filmmaker, Wildman is currently a journalist, as well as one of the most passionate film publicists out there.

By Andreas Wiseman

Oldenburg is not letting the novel coronavirus pandemic stop it. The independent film festival, dubbed by some as "Germany's Sundance," said Friday it will be going ahead as planned this year, from Sept.