You probably already read how Anne Thompson suggested the specialized film companies move into the niche business. Me, I hope the mini-majors stay exactly where they are, and some of the great minds and visionary capital I have been speaking to recently claim the true niche as their own instead.
There *is* a new model and it’s online. One of the primary problems moving forward is that Anne (until this column) and her colleagues in the media have continued to blindly promote the myth that Weinstein and Miramax and Focus and Searchlight have anything at all to do with independent film. In this column and at long last, Anne asks the most relevant question to come out of the trade media in years: What if the future is about more narrow-niche movies…?” Bingo. The future for what’s left of the genuinely independent film community will remain bleak until it can win back the indie film label, rebuild the indie film community, re-educate film-goers and the media about independent film and then spread the gospel to the hundreds and thousands of independent-minded filmmakers out there who don’t even try because they think they have to raise millions of dollars and cast Brad Pitt in order to succeed.
