Finance Your Film: IFP Calls for Entries
Clerks, Reservoir Dogs, Roger and Me: It may be hard to tell what these films have in common -- but they all got their start at New York's Independent Feature Project Market.
Now, the IFP is calling for entries to its upcoming annual New York City forum, in which new and independent film and television work is introduced to an industry-only audience with the objective of securing financing or distribution.
This year the Market will feature three categories: documentaries, emerging narrative works, and new fiction projects with some financing already in place.
DOCUMENTARIES
The "Spotlight on Documentaries" submissions can be feature-length (50 minutes or longer), shorts (40 minutes or fewer), or works-in-progress. Emerging narrative works include screenplays between 90 and 120 pages and a select number of short films. The new fiction projects will fall under a category called the "No Borders International Co-Production Market," in which work must have some financing secured by producers with track records in the industry.
The Market, a week-long showcase, is held each autumn in New York City and is the only market in the United States where filmmakers can present new works, or even works-in-development, directly to film industry insiders. In return, industry professionals are able to discover new talent before the films hit the festival circuit.
BUYERS FULL HOUSE
The audience at the Market consists of sales company and development executives, festival programmers, distributors, domestic and international buyers, television and home video acquisition executives, broadcasters, producers, and agents from the U.S. and abroad.
Often, filmmakers can secure completion or distribution funds from the networking event.
Market projects are selected based on overall artistic merit, originality, storytelling, and vision of the filmmaker, as well as commercial potential and production values. For feature works-in-progress, the track record of the filmmaker is also considered. Completed works must have been produced after June 2005.
AWARDS
The Screenplay Award, which includes a cash prize of $5,000, will be given to the best feature-length screenplay, and the Doc Completion award, which includes a prize worth $50,000 is goods and services, will be presented to a work-in-progress.
Rolling submission deadlines start May 1, when all emerging narrative screenplays are due; documentary features, works-in-progress, shorts and emerging narrative shorts may also be submitted on May 1. The final deadline for all "No Borders" domestic projects and emerging narrative shorts is May 15, and all documentaries -- features, shorts, and works-in-progress -- must be submitted by May 26.
The Market will be held Sept. 17-21.
Applications must be submitted online at www.ifp.org/market28
For more info, call (212) 465-8200, ext. 222, or email