After 37 years in Manhattan, IFP’s signature event, IFP Film Week is moving across the river to Brooklyn. The event will set up shop in DUMBO anchored around its headquarters, the Made in NY Media Center By IFP. Since its downtown beginnings as the Independent Feature Film Market in 1979, IFP Week has evolved into a must-attend gathering for the global storytelling community. It remains the only international co-production market for film – and now television, web-based, and VR projects – in the United States, with over 150 projects from over 22 countries curated and presented as scripts and works-in-progress each year.
“The film industry has changed,” said IFP executive director Joana Vicente, “Serialized stories are on the rise and film and television are taking cues from one another. New platforms for storytelling are bursting into the media landscape every year. IFP Film Week is a bold guide in this new frontier, harnessing the energy and ideas of an ever-evolving community that has grown beyond the simple concept of filmmaking.”
IFP moved to Brooklyn— home of creatives and technologists — in 2009 and founded the Made in NY Media Center in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment in 2013. This year, they will expand public offerings, paying increased attention to the fastgrowing areas of web-based, episodic and interactive content. More than 30+ curated narrative and non-fiction web series, episodes, interactive and app based serialized works will be introduced to both the industry and general public at this year’s Film Week.
In the last year, IFP has started supporting series creators and web-based programming with its new Screen Forward Labs for serialized content, honored USA Network’s Mr. Robot and Shugs & Fats at this year’s IFP Gotham Awards, and given a $25,000 Calvin Klein Live The Dream grant to web series 195 Lewis. Alumni projects have gone on to screen at the most recent Sundance, Rotterdam and Tribeca Film Festivals, as well as screening online to the masses. Namaste, Bitches, for example, has already gone onto premiere online to audiences in the six-figures within a three-month period.
With that in mind, this year’s programming will include a week of screenings, talks, meet ups, exhibitions, and events centered on cutting edge creative content for the big screen, the small screen, the Internet and beyond.
This will include:
An expanded offering of projects selected in the IFP Project Forum, the premiere meetings driven forum connecting artists to industry. Featuring new work from both emerging and established artists in narrative and documentary feature films, the No Borders (narrative) and Spotlight on Documentary (non-fiction) programs will continue to do so but also accept serialized content for television, web and app-based platforms.
Screen Forward Conference, a four-day program of how great projects can connect with audiences and stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Public presentations of sneak previews of upcoming feature films, documentaries, web-based and television series for both industry and general audiences
Both at the Made in NY Media Center and throughout DUMBO will be daily showcases of episodic and VR/AR content
Expansion of the annual IFP Lab Showcases with the mission of introducing audiences to new discoveries in narrative and documentary feature film, as well as web series, television pilots, VR and app based series.
“IFP Film Week is the place where filmmakers, artists, and storytellers cross paths with people who help move their projects forward,” said IFP head of programming Amy Dotson. “Creators get funding, advice, and opportunities. Industry insiders get to discover new talent. The public gets to screen cutting-edge work first. And Brooklyn is where it’s at.”
The 2016 IFP Independent Film Week will take place September 17-22. More information can be found at http://www.ifp.org/programs/independent-film-week/ and applications are now live for the Project Forum.