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LAS VEGAS -- The recent success of independent cinema in the commercial marketplace owes as much to the exhibition community as it does to the quality of the films themselves, according to a group of key indie players who took part in a ShoWest panel Wednesday afternoon.
The seminar, titled "Independent Film Takes Center Stage," featured actors Jennifer Lopez, who produced and stars in the upcoming film El Cantante; the film's director, Leon Ichaso; David Duchovny and Judy Greer, who both star in the new comedy The TV Set; and executives including Picturehouse's Bob Berney, ThinkFilm's Mark Urman, Focus Features' Jack Foley and the Yari Film Group's Bob Yari.
The Hollywood Reporter film editor Gregg Kilday served as moderator for the session, which took place at the Paris hotel.
Throughout the wide-ranging, hour-plus conversation, the panelists agreed that independently made productions continue to face significant challenges -- namely, securing financing and distribution, then finding a way to compete against bigger-budgeted studio films and their customary multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns. But the panelists also said that today's independent films are no longer ghettoized the way they once were and that exhibitors across the country now seek out any kind of product that can successfully appeal to audiences.
"Exhibitors get these films better than they ever have," Foley said, adding that theater owners are crucial partners when it comes to releasing movies like the specialty distributor's upcoming drama Evening from director Lajos Koltai and the Ralph Waldo Petey Greene biopic Talk to Me, starring Don Cheadle as the revolutionary 1960s radio personality.
The seminar, titled "Independent Film Takes Center Stage," featured actors Jennifer Lopez, who produced and stars in the upcoming film El Cantante; the film's director, Leon Ichaso; David Duchovny and Judy Greer, who both star in the new comedy The TV Set; and executives including Picturehouse's Bob Berney, ThinkFilm's Mark Urman, Focus Features' Jack Foley and the Yari Film Group's Bob Yari.
The Hollywood Reporter film editor Gregg Kilday served as moderator for the session, which took place at the Paris hotel.
Throughout the wide-ranging, hour-plus conversation, the panelists agreed that independently made productions continue to face significant challenges -- namely, securing financing and distribution, then finding a way to compete against bigger-budgeted studio films and their customary multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns. But the panelists also said that today's independent films are no longer ghettoized the way they once were and that exhibitors across the country now seek out any kind of product that can successfully appeal to audiences.
"Exhibitors get these films better than they ever have," Foley said, adding that theater owners are crucial partners when it comes to releasing movies like the specialty distributor's upcoming drama Evening from director Lajos Koltai and the Ralph Waldo Petey Greene biopic Talk to Me, starring Don Cheadle as the revolutionary 1960s radio personality.
- 3/15/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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