Indie film Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Jonathan Wolf, managing director of the American Film Market who has led AFM for 24 years, will step down when his current term ends in June. He’ll continue on as an advisor through the 2022 AFM, which is set to make its in-person return to Santa Monica for the 43rd edition, November 1-6, said the Independent Film & Television Alliance, which produces the event.

After succumbing to the demise of physical home entertainment and then being housed in a mountain village in Sicily, the eclectic holdings of New York City mainstay Kim’s Video have returned home.

Three Point Capital has closed on a $100 million revolving credit facility with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG). The independent film financier, which was acquired last year by Forest Road, has also rebranded as TPC.

Ed Meza @edmezavarThe founder of the blockchain-based film sales platform Cinemarket is launching Cineverse, an ambitious start-up that will make it possible for filmmakers, distributors and producers to market films directly using blockchain and NFT tech.Established by Cinemarket CEO Adrian Lugol and partners Vincent Lopez and Daniel Siegler (pictured), Cineverse will allow users to buy, share, gift, sell and resell films over the platform.The idea for the project came to Lugol during Christmas of 2020, when he wanted to give his young nephew some DVDs of his favorite films. The plan was thwarted when he learned the family no longer owned an old-fashioned DVD player.“I was like, wow, how am I going to give you these movies in a simple way?” Lugol recalls.

Neon’s racked up a few bests this weekend with a cume of $135,042 at four NY/LA theaters for a popping per screen average of $33,768.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterA producer on “Rust” is backing another independent film, “Sam & Kate,” starring Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek, which is set to begin production early next year.Ryan Smith is helping to finance the film, which is set to shoot in Thomasville, Ga., starting in mid-February.

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.

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.