History

Edison Trust

In 1908, the Motion Picture Patents Company or “Edison Trust” was formed as a trust . The Trust was a cartel that held a monopoly on film production and distribution of all major film companies of the time ( Edison , Biograph , Vitagraph , Essanay , Selig , Lubin , Kalem , American Star , American Pathé ), the leading distributor ( George Kleine ) and the biggest seller of raw film, Eastman Kodak. A number of filmmakers declined to join or were refused as “independent”.

At the time of the formation of the MPPC, Thomas Edison owned MOST of the major patents Relating to motion pictures, Including That for raw movie . The MPPC vigorously enforced its patents, constantly bringing suits and receiving injunctions against independent filmmakers. Because of this, a number of filmmakers responded by building their own cameras and moving their operations to Hollywood, California , where the distance from Edison’s home base of New Jersey made it more difficult for the MPPC to enforce its patents. ^[3]

The Edison Trust was first ended by two decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States : one in 1912, which canceled the patent on a film, and a second in 1915, which canceled all MPPC patents. Though these decisions succeeded at legalizing independent film, they would do little to remedy the de facto ban on small productions; the independent filmmakers HAD Who Fled to Southern California During the enforcement of the trust HAD already laid the groundwork for the studio system of classical Hollywood cinema .

Studio system

In early 1910, director DW Griffith was sent by the Biograph Company to the west coast with his acting troupe, consisting of performers Blanche Sweet , Lillian Gish , Mary Pickford , Lionel Barrymore , and others. They began filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles . While there, the company decided to explore new territories, to several miles north to Hollywood , a little village that was friendly and positive about the movie company filming there. Griffith then filmed the first movie in Hollywood, In Old California , a Biograph melodrama aboutCalifornia in the 1800s, while it belonged to Mexico. Biograph stayed there for months and made several movies before returning to New York.

During the Edison era of the early 1900s, many Jewish immigrants had found jobs in the US film industry. Under the Edison Trust, they were able to make their mark in a brand-new business: the exhibition of films in storefront theaters called nickelodeons . Within a few years, Samuel Goldwyn , Carl Laemmle , Adolph Zukor , Louis B. Mayer , and the Warner Brothers(Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack) had switched to the production side of the business. After hearing about Biograph’s success in Hollywood, in 1913 many would-be movie-makers headed to Edison. Soon they were the heads of a new kind of enterprise: the movie studio .

By establishing a new system of production, distribution, and exhibition which was independent of The Edison Trust in New York, these studios opened up new horizons for cinema in the United States . The Hollywood oligopoly replaced the Edison monopoly. Within this new system, a pecking order Was Established qui soon left little room for newcomers Any. By the mid-1930s, at the top Were the five major studios, 20th Century Fox , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Paramount Pictures , RKO Pictures , and Warner Bros. Then came three smaller companies, Columbia Pictures , United Artists , and Universal Studios. Finally there was ” Poverty Row “, which is one of the most important topics in the business.

While the small studios that make up the Poverty Row could be characterized as independently of any major studio, they used the same kind of vertically and horizontally integrated systems of business as the larger players in the game. The paradigm shift would also lead to the decline of the studio and its distribution chain-theater distribution network would leave independent movie houses for the populist, seat-filling product of the Poverty Row studios, that same paradigm shift Disappearance of “Poverty Row” as a Hollywood phenomenon. While the types of films produced by Poverty Row

This table lists the active companies in late 1935.

Big Five majors	Little Three majors	Poverty Row (top four of many)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	United Artists	Grand National
Paramount Pictures	Columbia Pictures	Republic Pictures
20th Century Fox	Universal Studios	Monogram Pictures
Warner Bros.	Producers Releasing Corporation (aka PRC)
RKO Pictures

United Artists and resistance to the studio system

The studio system became so powerful that some filmmakers once again sought independence. On February 5, 1919 American silent cinema ( Mary Pickford , Charles Chaplin , Douglas Fairbanks , and DW Griffith ) formed United Artists, the first independent studio in America. Each held a 20% stake, William Gibbs McAdoo . ^[4] The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, and cowboy star William S. Hart has as They Were Earlier year traveling around the US selling Liberty bonds to help the World War Ieffort. Already veterans of Hollywood, the film stars themselves to their own company to better control their future. They were spurred on by the actions of established Hollywood producers and distributors, who were making moves to their creative and creative ways. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart had to be done before things had formalized. When Richard A. Rowland , Head of Metro Pictures , commented, “The inmates are taking over the asylum.”

The four partners, with advice from McAdoo (son-in-law and former Treasury Secretary of the then-President Woodrow Wilson ), formed their distribution company, with Hiram Abrams as its first managing director. The original terms called for Pickford, Fairbanks, Griffith, and Chaplin to independently produce five pictures each year, but by the time the company had a role in 1920-1921, feature filmswere becoming more and more polished, and running times had settled around ninety minutes (or eight reels). It was believed that no one, no matter how popular, could produce a movie. By 1924, Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis. The veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. Not to be missed, but he brought along with commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge , his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge , and his brother-in-law, Buster Keaton . Contracts were signed with a number of independent producers, particularlySamuel Goldwyn , Howard Hughes and later Alexander Korda . Schenck also formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name.

Still, with a broadening of the company, struggled UA. The coming of the end of the careers of Pickford and Fairbanks. Chaplin, rich enough to do what he pleased, worked only occasionally. Schenck resigned in 1933 to organize a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck , Twentieth Century Pictures , which was soon given to UA’s schedule. He was replaced by President Al Lichtman, who resigned after only a few months. Pickford produced a few movies, and at various times Goldwyn, Korda, Walt Disney , Walter Wanger , and David O. Selznickwere made “producing partners” (ie, sharing in the profits), but ownership still rested with the founders. As the years passed and the dynamics of the business changed, these “producing partners” drifted away. Goldwyn and Disney left for RKO , Wanger for Universal Pictures , and Selznick for retirement . By the late 1940s, United Artists had virtually ceased to exist as a producer or distributor.

Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers

In 1941, Mary Pickford , Charlie Chaplin , Walt Disney , Orson Welles , Samuel Goldwyn , David O. Selznick , Alexander Korda , and Walter Wanger -many of the same people who were members of United Artists-founded Independent Motion Picture Producers Society . Later members included William Cagney , Sol Lesser , and Hal Roach . The Society aims to preserve the rights of independent producers in an industry overwhelmingly controlled by the studio system. SIMPP fought to end monopolisticby the five major Hollywood studios which controlled the production, distribution, and exhibition of films. In 1942, the SIMPP filed an antitrust suit against Paramount’s United Detroit Theaters. Subjected Paramount of conspiracy to control first-run and subsequent-run theaters in Detroit. It was the first antitrust suit brought by producers against exhibitors alleging monopoly and restraint of trade. In 1948, the United States Supreme Court Paramount Decision commissioned the Hollywood movie studios to sell their theater and some anti-competitive practices. This brought to an end in the studio system of Hollywood’s Golden Age. By 1958, many of the reasons for creating SIMPP had been corrected and SIMPP closed its offices.

Low-budget movies

The efforts of the SIMPP and the advent of inexpensive wearable cameras during World War II effectively made it possible for any person in America with an interest in making films to write, produce, and direct one with the help of any major film studio . These Circumstances soon resulted in a number of Critically acclaimed and highly influential works, Including Maya Deren ‘s Meshes of the Afternoon in 1943, Kenneth Anger’s Fireworks in 1947 and Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin and Ray Abrashkin’s Little Fugitive in 1953. Filmmakers Such As Ken Jacobs with new ways of making and shooting movies.

Little Fugitive becomes the first independent film for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the American Academy Awards . It also received Silver Lion at Venice . Both Engel and Anger’s films won acclaim from the burgeoning French New Wave , with Fireworks inspiring praise and an invitation to study under him in Europe from Jean Cocteau , and François Truffaut citing Little Fugitive as an essential inspiration to his seminal work, The 400 Blows. As the 1950s progressed, the new low-budget paradigm of filmmaking gained greater recognition internationally, with such films as Satyajit Ray’s critically acclaimed ^{[5] [6] [7] [8]} Apu Trilogy (1955-1959).

The narrative of Hollywood, the narrative and the narrative of Hollywood. Maya Deren was soon joined in New York by a crowd of like minded avant-garde filmmakers who were interested in creating movies as works of art rather than entertainment. Based upon a common belief que la “official cinema” was “running out of breath” and HAD Become “Morally corrupt, obsolete Aesthetically, thematically superficial, [and] temperamentally boring”, ^[9] this new crop of independents FORMED The Film- Makers’ Cooperative, an artist-run, non-profit organization which they would use to distribute their films through a centralized archive. Founded in 1962 by Jonas Mekas , Stan Brakhage , Shirley Clarke , Gregory Markopoulos , and others, The Cooperative provided an important outlet for many creative cinemas in the 1960s, including Jack Smith and Andy Warhol . When he returned to America, Ken Anger would be debuting many of his most important works there. Mekas and Brakhage would go to the Anthology Film Archives in 1970, which would likewise prove essential to the development and preservation of independent films, even to this day.

Exploitation boom and the MPAA rating system

Not all low-budget movies existed as non-commercial art ventures. The success of movies like Little Fugitive , which had been made with low (or sometimes non-exist ) budgets encouraged a huge boom in popularity for non-studio films. Low-budget film making promised exponentially greater returns (in terms of percentages) if the film could have a successful run in the theaters. During this time, producer Roger Cormanbegan a sweeping body of work that would become legendary for its frugality and grueling shooting schedule. Until his so-called “retirement” as a director in 1971 he would produce up to seven movies a year, matching and often exceeding the five-per-year schedule that the executives at United Artists had once thought impossible.

Like those of the avant-garde, the films of Roger Corman took advantage of the fact that they had never been bound by their self-imposed production code . Corman ‘s example (and that of others like him) would help to start a boom in independent B – movies in the 1960s, the main aim of which was to bring back into the market the major studios had lost touch with. By promising sex , wanton violence , drug use , and nudity , these films could not be more Horror andscience fiction films experienced a period of tremendous growth during this time. As these tiny producers, theaters, and distributors continued to attempt to undercut one another, the B-grade shock movie soon fell to the level of the movie , a niche category of films with production values ​​that they became a show in their own right. The cult audiences these pictures attracted participants made the ideal candidates for midnight moviescreenings revolving around audience participation and cosplay .

In 1968, a young filmmaker named George A. Romero shocked audiences with Night of the Living Dead , a new kind of intense and unforgiving independent horror film. This film was released just after the abandonment of the production code, but before the adoption of the MPAA rating system . As such, it was the first and last film of its kind to be completely unrestricted screening, in which young children were able to witness Romero’s new brand of highly realistic gore. This film would help to set the climate of independent horror, as movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980) continued to push the envelope.

With Romero’s gaining popularity, Hollywood opted to become a filmmaker with the MPAA ratings system, which would place restrictions on ticket sales to young people. Unlike the Production Code, this rating system has Posed Threat to independent film fait que Would it affect the number of tickets Could They sell and cut into the grindhouse cinema’s share of the youth market. This change would further widen the divide between commercial and non-commercial movies.

However, having a movie hearing is strictly voluntary and there is no legal basis for releasing movies on an unrated basis. However, uneducated movies, newspapers and websites often place their own restrictions on movies that do not come with a built-in national rating in order to avoid presenting movies to inappropriately young audiences. ^[10]

Hollywood and independent filmmaking

Following the advent of television and the Paramount Case , the major studios attempted to lure audiences with show. Widescreen processes and technical improvements, such as Cinemascope , stereo sound, 3-D and others, were developed in an attempt to retain the audience by giving them a larger-than-life experience. The 1950s and early 1960s in Hollywood dominated by musicals, historical epics, and other films which benefited from these advances. This proved commercially viable during most of the 1950s. However, by the late 1960s, audience share was dwindling at an alarming rate. Several costly flops, including Cleopatra (1963) andHello, Dolly! (1969) put severe strain on the studios. Meanwhile, in 1951, lawyers-turned-producers Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin had made a deal with the rest of the stockholders of the United States which would allow them to make an attempt to revive the company and, if the attempt was successful, buy it after five years.

The attempt was a success, and in 1955 United Artists became the first “studio” without an actual studio. AU leased space at the Pickford / Fairbanks Studio, but did not own a studio lot like such. Because of this, many of their movies would be shot on location. Primarily acting as bankers, they offered money to independent producers. Thus did not have the overhead, the maintenance or the production of other studios. UA went public in 1956, and as the other mainstream studios fell into decline, UA prospered, adding relationships with the Mirisch brothers, Billy Wilder , and Joseph E. Levine .

By the late 1950s, RKO had ceased film production, and the latter had recognized that they did not know how to reach the youth audience. In an attempt to capture this audience, the Studios hired a host of young filmmakers (many of Whom Were mentored by Roger Corman ) and allowed Them to Their make movies with Relatively little studio control. Warner Brothers offered first-time producer Warren Beatty 40% of the gross on his film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) instead of a minimal fee. The movie had grossed over $ 70 million worldwide by 1973. This initial successes for the movie studio and the media dubbed ” New Hollywood. ”

Dennis Hopper , the American actor, made his writing and directing debut with Easy Rider (1969). Along with his producer / co-star / co-writer Peter Fonda , Hopper was responsible for one of the first and completely independent films of New Hollywood. Easy Rider debuted at Cannes and garnered the ” First Film Award ” ( English : Prize for the first work ) after which it received two Oscar nominations, one for best original screenplay and one for Corman-alum Jack Nicholson’s breakthrough performance in the supporting role of George Hanson, an alcoholic lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. Following on the heels of Easy Rider Shortly Afterwards Was the revived United Artists’ Midnight Cowboy (also 1969), qui, like Easy Rider , Took Numerous cues from Ken Anger and his influences in the French New Wave. It has become the first and only X rated film to win the Academy Award for best picture. Midnight Cowboy aussi Held the distinction of featuring cameo roles by top Many of the Warhol superstars , Who HAD Become already symbols of the militantly anti-Hollywood climate of NYC’s independent movie community.

Corman trainee, Francis Ford Coppola , made his debut in Spain at the Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival with The Rain People (1969), a film he had produced through his own company, American Zoetrope . Though The Rain Peoplewas greatly overlooked by American audiences, Zoetrope would become a powerful force in New Hollywood. Through Zoetrope, Coppola formed a distribution agreement with giant studio Warner Bros., which he would exploit to achieve wide releases for his films. These three films provided the major Hollywood studios with both an example to follow and a new crop of talent to draw from. Zoetrope co-founder George Lucas made his film feature debut with THX 1138 (1971), also released by Zoetrope through their deal with Warner Bros., announcing himself as another major talent of New Hollywood. By the following year, two New Hollywood directors have been established for Paramount’sThe Godfather (1972) and Lucas had obtained studio funding for American Graffiti (1973) from Universal. In the mid-1970s, the major Hollywood studios continued to tap these new filmmakers for both ideas and personal, producing such films as Paper Moon (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976), all of which brought with critical and commercial success. These successes by the members of the United States of America are more and more demanding, both on the studio and eventually on the audience.

It can be said that all members of the New Hollywood generation were independent filmmakers. These are the most widely accepted examples of a film in the history of cinema. The New Hollywood generation soon became firmly entrenched in a revived incarnation of the studio system, which financed the development, production and distribution of their films. Very few of these filmmakers have independently acquired a film of their own, or they have worked on the production of their influence. Seemingly independent movies such as Taxi Driver , The Last Picture Showand others were studio films: The studio was based on studios and subsequently paid for by the studios, the production financing was from the studio, and the marketing and distribution of the films were designed and controlled by the studio’s advertising agency. Though Coppola made considerable efforts to resist the influences of the studios opting to finance His risky 1979 movie Apocalypse Now himself Rather than compromise with skeptical studio executive, he, and filmmakers like him, HAD saved the old studios from financial ruin by providing good em with a new formula for success

Indeed, it was during this period that the definition of an independent film became blurred. Though Midnight Cowboy was financed by United Artists, the company was certainly a studio. Likewise, Zoetrope was another “independent studio” which worked within the system to make a space for independent directors. George Lucas would leave Zoetrope in 1971 to create his own independent studio, Lucasfilm , which would produce the Star Warsblockbuster and Indiana Jones franchises. In fact, the only two movies of the movement qui peut être Described as uncompromisingly independent are Easy Rider at the Beginning, and Peter Bogdanovich ‘sThey All Laughed , at the end. Peter Bogdanovich bought back from the studio to his 1980 movie and paid for it’s distribution of his own pocket, which he believed was better than what he believed.

In retrospect, it can be seen that Steven Spielberg ‘s Jaws (1975) and George Lucas ‘ s Star Wars (1977) marked the beginning of the end for the New Hollywood. With their unprecedented success box office, these movies jump-started Hollywood’s mentality blockbuster , giving studios a new paradigm to make money in this changing commercial landscape. The focus on high-concept , with greater concentration on tie-in merchandise (such as toys), spin-offs into other media (such as soundtracks), and the use of sequels (which has been made more respectable by Coppola’s The Godfather Part II), all showed the studios how to make money in the new environment.

Realizing how much money could be made in movies, major corporations started buying up the remaining Hollywood studios, saving them from the oblivion which befell RKO in the 50s. Eventually, even RKO was revived. The corporate mentality that these companies would bring to the filmmaking business would slowly become more of the filmmaker than the most successful and successful filmmakers. ^[11] Like the original independents who fled the Edison Trust to form old Hollywood, the young movie school graduates who had fled the studios to explore on-location shooting and dynamic, neo-realist They have gone out of their way to find a more stable and more effective base of power.

Outside Hollywood

Though thematic exchange qui spread through the American cinema of the 1970s prominently featured Heightened depictions of realistic sex and violence, directors Who Wished to reach the mass audience of the old Hollywood Quickly Learned to stylize thesis themes to make Their movies appealing and attractive Rather than repulsive obscene gold. However, at the same time, the film’s students were developing the skills they would use to take over, many of their classmates had begun to develop a different direction. Influenced by foreign “art house” directors, (such as Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini ) operating shockers (including Joseph P. Mawra , Michael Findlay, And Henri Pachard ) and Those Who Walked the line between, ( Kenneth Anger , et al.) A number of young movie makers Began to experiment with transgression not have a box office draw, aim as an artistic act . Directors such as John Waters and David Lynch would make a name for themselves by the early-1970s for the bizarre and often disturbing imagery that characterized their films.

When Lynch’s first feature film, Eraserhead (1977), brought Lynch to the attention of producer Mel Brooks , he soon found himself in charge of the $ 5 million film The Elephant Man (1980) for Paramount. Though Eraserhead was strictly an out-of-pocket, low-budget, independent movie, Lynch made the transition with unprecedented grace. The film was a huge commercial success, and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay nods for Lynch. It also has a commercially viable, if somewhat dark and unconventional, Hollywood director. Seeing Lynch as a fellow studio convert,George Lucas , a fan of Eraserhead and the darling of the studios, offered Lynch the opportunity to direct his next Star Wars sequel, Return of the Jedi (1983). However, Lynch had seen what had happened to Lucas and his comrades in arms after their failure. He refused the opportunity, stating that he would rather work on his own projects. ^[12]

Lynch INSTEAD thing live to a big budget adaptation of Frank Herbert ‘s science fiction novel Dune for Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis ‘s De Laurentiis Entertainment Group , on the status que le company release a second Lynch project, over qui the director Would Have Complete creative control. Although it would be the next Star Wars , Lynch’s Dune(1984) was a major and commercial dud, costing $ 45 million to make, and grossing a $ 27.4 million domestically. The producer was furious that he would be forced to let Lynch to make any kind of movie he wanted. He offered Lynch only $ 6 million, which is why it would be best to be a small flop and be rid of the director. However, the film, Blue Velvet (1986) was a resounding success. Lynch finally returned to his independent roots, and did not work with another major studio for over a decade.

John Waters, on the other hand, proved too hot to handle for the major studios. Distributing his films locally though a production company of his own creation Dreamland Productions , Waters defied the mainstream completely until the early 80s, when the fledgling New Line Cinema agreed to work with him on Polyester (1981). During the 1980s, Waters would become a pillar of the New York-based independent film movement known as ” Cinema of Transgression “, a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe a loose-knit group of like-minded New York artists using shock value and humor in their super 8mm moviesvideo art . Other key players in this movement included Kembra Pfahler , Casandra Stark , Beth B , Tommy Turner , Richard Kern and Lydia Lunch . Rallying around such institutions as the Film-Makers’ Cooperative and Anthology Film Archives, this new generation of independents devoted to the defiance of the now-established New Hollywood, proposing that “all film schools be blown up and all boring movies never be made again. ” ^[13]

The development of no-budget film production company Ass Studios in 2011 brought guerrilla style tactics to their filmmaking. Founded by Courtney Fathom Sell & Reverend Jen Miller , the now-defunct studio would utilize local performers and locations from the Lower East Side of New York City to create various short films that would then be screened as such as bars and Anthology Film Archives . Satan, The first and only feature feature of Satan, TheFair is a $ 27.00 while featuring an A list Hollywood casting Janeane Garofalo and was Produced by Jonathan Ames, writer and creator of the HBO series Bored to Death . ^{[14] [15] [16]}

Sundance Institute

In 1978, Sterling Van Wagenen and Charles Gary Allison , with Chairperson Robert Redford , (veteran of New Hollywood and star of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ) founded the Utah / US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah and showcase what the potential of independent movie could be. At the time, the main focus of the event was to present a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions; however it also included a small program of new independent films. The jury of the 1978 festival was headed by Gary Allison , and included Verna Fields , Linwood’s Gale Dunn , Katherine Ross ,Charles E. Sellier Jr. , Mark Rydell , and Anthea Sylbert . In 1981, the same year that United Artists, bought out by MGM, was released for independent filmmakers, Sterling Van Wagenen left the film festival to help the Sundance Institute with Robert Redford. In 1985, the now well-established Sundance Institute, headed by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over the management of the US Film Festival, which was experiencing financial difficulties. Gary Beer and Sterling Van Wagenen spearheaded production of the inaugural Sundance Film Festival which included Program Director Tony Safford and Administrative Director Jenny Walz Selby .

In 1991, the festival was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival , after Redford’s famous role as The Sundance Kid . ^[17] Through this festival, such notable figures as Kevin Smith , Robert Rodriguez , Quentin Tarantino , David O. Russell , Paul Thomas Anderson , Steven Soderbergh , James Wan , Hal Hartley, and Jim Jarmusch garnered critical resounding acclaim and unprecedented box office sales. In 2005, about 15% of the US domestic box office revenue was from independent studios.^[18]

“Indie movie”

Bruce Willis , John Travolta , and Tim Robbins , the success of the film festival and the success of the film festival movies. ^[19] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1990 from New Line Cinema grossed over $ 100 million in the United States making it the most successful indie movie in box office history to that point. ^[20] Miramax Films Had a string of hits with Sex, Lies, and Videotape , My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown , and Clerks, putting Miramax and New Line Cinema in the sights of big companies looking for cash in on the success of independent studios. In 1993, Disney bought Miramax for $ 60 million. Turner Broadcasting , in a trillion-dollar deal, acquired New Line Cinema, Fine Line Features , and Castle Rock Entertainment in 1994. The acquisition of a new line released by Turner Broadcasting as New Line released The Mask and Dumb & Dumber , Castle Rock released The Shawshank Redemption , and Miramax released Pulp Fiction , all in 1994. ^[20]

The acquisitions of the smaller studios by conglomerate Hollywood was a part of the independent film industry. The following are all indie studios owned by conglomerate Hollywood:

• Sony Pictures Classics (1992-present)
• Fox Searchlight Pictures (1995-present)
• Paramount Vantage (1998-2013)
• Focus Features (2002-present)
• Warner Independent Pictures (2003-2008) ^[21]

By the early 2000s, Hollywood was producing three different classes of films: 1) big-budget blockbusters , 2) art films , specialty films and niche-market films produced by the conglomerate-owned indies and 3) genre and specialty movies coming from true indie studios and producers. The United States and United States cost between $ 5 and $ 10 million to produce. ^[22]

Hollywood was producing three different classes of feature films. The major products were the large, budget blockbusters and high-cost star marketed by the six major studio producer-distributors. Budgets on the major studios’ pictures averaged $ 100 million, with approximately one-third of it being spent on marketing because of the large release campaigns. Another feature of Hollywood feature film included art films, specialty films, and other niche market fare controlled by the conglomerates’ indie subsidiaries. Budgets on these indie films averaged $ 40 million per release in the early 2000s, with $ 10 million to $ 15 million spent on marketing (MPA, 2006: 12). The final class of film is a film produced by independent producers-distributors and only a few dozen or possibly a few hundred-print campaigns in select urban markets. Movies like these usually cost less than $ 10 million, but often less than $ 5 million, with small marketing budgets.^[23]

Internationally

The Independent film industry exists globally. Many of the most prestigious ^[24] film festivals are hosted in various cities around the world. The Berlin International Film Festival attracts over 130 countries, making it the largest film festival in the world. ^{[ Citation needed ]} Other wide events include the Toronto International Film Festival , Hong Kong International Film Festival , and the Panafrican Film and TV Festival of Ouagadougou . ^[24]

The European Union , specifically through the European Cinema and VOD Initiative (ECVI), has established programs outside the theatrical screenings. With this program, VOD offerings are made with traditional movie screenings. ^[25] There is also more of a push from the national governments to fund all aspects of the arts, including film. ^[26] The European Commission for Culture has an Audiovisual sector, for example, whose role is most notably to help distribute and promote films and festivals across Europe. Additionally, the Commission organizes policymaking, research, and reporting on “media literacy” and “digital distribution.” ^[26]

2010s: digital filmmaking

In a effort to join the growing independent film industry, the six major studios have established numerous subsidiary branches, designed to develop commercial films that appeal to the growing art film / art house market. These include United Artists, New Line Cinema, HBO Movies, Castle Rock Entertainment, Turner Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation, TriStar Pictures, Disneynature, DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Classics, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Miramax Movies, Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse, Paramount Classics / Paramount Vantage, Focus Features, Hollywood Pictures, Lucasfilm Ltd., Rogue Pictures, Five & Two Pictures, and Sherwood Pictures, among others. ^[27]

An increasing access to widespread technologies, including young people and individuals from marginalized communities. These people may not be so technical, but instead are self-titled “filmmakers.” Aspiring filmmakers can be used with a smartphone or digital camera, to those who write “spec” scripts (to pitch to studios), actively network, and use crowdsourcingand other financing to get their movies professionally produced. Oftentimes, aspiring filmmakers have other day-jobs to support themselves financially while they pitch their scripts and ideas to independent movie production companies, talent agents, and wealthy investors. New York City is a major resource for people pursuing filmmaking as a career. There are universities like NYU, which is considered to be one of the best movies in the country, second only to USC in Los Angeles. ^[28]

Additionally, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, many movies and television shoots have been moving to New York City; in 2016, the city was the shooting location of 128 films, including Spider-Man: Homecoming , The Dark Tower , and The Fate of the Furious . ^[29] The economic side of filmmaking is also less of an obstacle than before, because the backing of a major studio is no longer needed. Crowdfunding services like Kickstarter, Pozible, and Tubestart; enough to fund their own, low-budget productions. ^[30] Filmmaking is more widely available than ever before.

Full-length movies are often showcased at film festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, South By Southwest (SXSW) movie festival, Raindance Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and Palm Springs Film Festival. ^[31] Award winners from these exhibitions are more likely to be picked up for distribution by major film studios. Film festivals and screenings like these are just one of the options in which movies can be independently produced / released.

Modern independent studios (they are used to produce / release independent movies and foreign-language movies in America) include:

There are thousands of smaller production companies that produce independent independent films annually, in addition to these higher profile “independent” studios. These smaller companies look to their films at a national scale. The direct-to-video market is not often noted, nor is it artistically fertile ground, but among its many entries are ambitious independent films that either failed to achieve or did not seek it. As technology advances and distribution of films continues to move towards digital methods, the line between “film,” direct-to-disc productions, and feature-length videos which will be channeled into the future.