Illeana Hesselberg, known professionally as Illeana Douglas, is an American actress and filmmaker. She appeared in three episodes of Six Feet Under, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series and won the Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series award from OFTA, the Online Film & Television Association, and in the TV series Action opposite Jay Mohr, for which she won a Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. As of 2015, she can be seen on Turner Classic Movies where she hosts specials focused on unheralded women directors from film history.
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies. Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the filmmakers' personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower budgets than major studio films.
Constantine Alexander Payne is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for the films Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004), The Descendants (2011), Nebraska (2013) and Downsizing (2017). He is noted for his dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society. Payne is a two-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and a three-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director. In 2017, Metacritic ranked Payne 2nd on its list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century.
Napoleon Dynamite is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean Covel, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the titular character, a nerdy high-school student who deals with several dilemmas: befriending an immigrant who wants to be class president, awkwardly pursuing a romance with a fellow student, and living with his quirky family.
Miguel Arteta is a Puerto Rican director of film and television, known for his independent film Chuck & Buck (2000), for which he received the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award, and for the films The Good Girl (2002) and Cedar Rapids (2011).
Danielle RenfrewBehrens, or simply Danielle Renfrew, is an independent film producer with credits ranging from grassroots documentaries to major motion pictures. She has worked with prominent entertainment personalities including Quentin Tarantino, Elizabeth Banks, Courteney Cox, Nick Cannon, and Lily Tomlin. Renfrew is currently head of Animal Pictures, which she runs with Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph. Animal Pictures' releases include comedy special Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine and film Sirens, which was selected for Sundance Film Festival 2022.
Matthew Greenfield is the president of Searchlight Pictures, which has produced five Best Picture winners, including Slumdog Millionaire, Birdman, 12 Years a Slave, The Shape of Water, and Nomadland. Greenfield and fellow Searchlight president David Greenbaum started Searchlight Television in 2018.
Rick Famuyiwa is an American director, producer and screenwriter of productions including The Wood (1999), Brown Sugar (2002), Talk to Me (2007), Dope (2015), and Confirmation (2016). His films have been nominated for or won multiple awards, including in 2008, when he received an award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture for the film Talk To Me (2008).
Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American tragicomedy road film and the feature film directorial debut of the husband–wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt. The film stars Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, as members of a family taking the youngest to compete in a child beauty pageant. It was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of US$8 million. Filming began on June 6, 2005, and took place over 30 days in Arizona and Southern California.
Thomas Edgar Rothman is an American film executive and current chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group. In this role, Rothman oversees all of the studio's motion picture production and distribution activities worldwide, including Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Classics, 3000 Pictures, Sony Pictures International Productions, Stage 6 Films, AFFIRM Films. Rothman joined Sony Pictures in late-2013 as chairman of TriStar Productions and in 2015 was promoted to Chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, followed by the release in 2017 and 2018 of titles such as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Venom, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, Peter Rabbit, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Under Rothman's leadership, the Motion Picture Group was returned to strong profitability and experienced several of its most profitable years in history with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Little Women. Driven by tentpoles such as Spider-Man: Far From Home, Jumanji: The Next Level, and Bad Boys For Life, fiscal year 2020 was the film studio's best in over a decade in terms of both ultimate profitability and operating income.
Indiewood films are those made outside of the Hollywood studio system or traditional arthouse/ independent filmmaking yet managing to be produced, financed and distributed by the two with varying degrees of success and/or failure.
Tamara Jenkins is an American filmmaker and occasional actress. She is best known for her feature films Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), The Savages (2007), and Private Life (2018).
Red State is a 2011 American independent horror thriller film written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Michael Parks, John Goodman, Michael Angarano, Melissa Leo, and Stephen Root.
Stoker is a 2013 psychological thriller film directed by Park Chan-wook, in his English-language debut, and written by Wentworth Miller. The film stars Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, Nicole Kidman, Dermot Mulroney, and Jacki Weaver.
David Lowery is an American filmmaker.
Donat Patrick Kack-Brice, known professionally as Patrick Brice, is an American film director, actor, screenwriter and cinematographer. He is known for directing Creep (2014), The Overnight (2015), Creep 2 (2017), Corporate Animals (2019) and There's Someone Inside Your House (2021).
Andrew Droz Palermo is an American cinematographer, director, and screenwriter. He is known for his work on The Green Knight (2021), A Ghost Story (2017), You're Next (2011), A Teacher (2013), and for directing Rich Hill (2014) and One & Two (2015).
Sam Abbas is an Egyptian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is noted for his artfully composed, poetic, and incident-like tableaus film style.
Wendy is a 2020 American fantasy drama film directed by Benh Zeitlin, from a screenplay by Zeitlin and Eliza Zeitlin. The film stars Devin France, Yashua Mack, Gage Naquin, Gavin Naquin, Ahmad Cage, Krzysztof Meyn, and Romyri Ross. It is intended to be a re-imagining of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.
All Together Now is a 2020 American drama film directed by Brett Haley, from a screenplay by Haley, Marc Basch, Matthew Quick and Ol Parker. It is based upon the novel Sorta Like a Rockstar by Quick. It stars Auliʻi Cravalho, Justina Machado, Fred Armisen, Carol Burnett, Judy Reyes, Taylor Richardson, Rhenzy Feliz, Gerald Isaac Waters and Anthony Jacques.
