Indiewood


Indiewood films are made outside of the Hollywood studio system or traditional arthouse/independent filmmaking system yet managed to be produced, financed and distributed by the two with varying degrees of success and/or failure.

Background

The American independent film, prior to the 1980s and first half of the 1990s, was previously associated with b movies, exploitation films, avant-garde underground cinema, social and political documentaries, experimental animated shorts and social realist dramas.
Throughout the middle of the 1990s, the word "Indiewood" was invented to describe a component of the spectrum of American films in which distinctions exist, it seemed as if Hollywood and the independent sector had become blurred.

Divisions

Indiewood divisions gain from expert experience of the niche industry by hiring leading independent personalities such as Harvey Weinstein from the Disney fold after the exit of the Weinsteins from Miramax, at The Weinstein Company, and James Schamus, former joint head of Good Machine, at Focus Features.

Other "mini-major" subdivisions/indie distributors

  • Searchlight Pictures
  • Fine Line Features
  • Lionsgate
  • NEON
  • A24
  • Paramount Vantage
  • Summit Entertainment
  • Orion Pictures
  • The Samuel Goldwyn Company
  • Samuel Goldwyn Films
  • Warner Independent Pictures
  • Picturehouse
  • United Artists
  • Blumhouse Productions
  • Cannon Films
  • Sony Pictures Classics
  • Independent Film Company
  • Magnolia Pictures
  • Janus Films
  • Kino Lorber
  • Roadside Attractions
  • Bleecker Street
  • MUBI
  • Amazon Studios
  • Oscilloscope Laboratories
  • Miramax
  • The Weinstein Company
  • Focus Features
  • Good Machine
  • Castle Rock Entertainment

    Differences from Hollywood

The films are often made for far less money than Hollywood films and each aspect of the filmmaking process has to undergo less scrutiny by committees. Additionally, within the Indiewood approach the filmmaker can take as long as they need in the post-production phase of their film - whereas in Hollywood they are contracted to finish the film in a specific period of time. In Hollywood, the film then goes on to show in focus group screenings on the studio lot. In Indiewood, the filmmakers can determine the next steps of the film. They also bear striking similarities to as well as were influenced by the "proto-indies" of the 1960s such as Robert Downey Sr's still image film Chafed Elbows, John Cassavetes's Academy Award-nominated Faces and Brian de Palma's Greetings which in turn were influenced by the culture of the Beat Generation, the polar opposite to the conformist, gray-flannel conformity of 1950s America.
Most Indiewood films are first shown at film festivals with the hopes of further distribution by being picked up by a larger film company or distributor in order to find broader audiences alongside awards consideration.

List of selected Indiewood/Pre-Indiewood filmmakers

  • Julie Dash
  • Cheryl Dunye
  • Kathleen Collins
  • Lizzie Borden
  • Ava DuVernay
  • Dee Rees
  • Chloe Zhao
  • Lulu Wang
  • Mira Nair
  • Barry Jenkins
  • Billy Woodberry
  • Marlon Riggs
  • Stanley Nelson
  • Charles Burnett
  • William Greaves
  • Wendell B. Harris Jr.
  • Oscar Micheaux
  • Ryan Coogler
  • Tyler Perry
  • Spike Lee
  • Reginald Hudlin
  • John Singleton
  • Robert Townsend
  • Walter Salles
  • Ramin Bahrani
  • Alfonso Cuaron
  • Denzel Washington
  • Ang Lee
  • Lee Daniels
  • Daniels
  • Wayne Wang
  • Lee Isaac Chung
  • Lisa Cholodenko
  • Mario Van Peebles
  • Melvin Van Peebles
  • Robert Rodriguez
  • Gregory Nava
  • Robert M. Young
  • Miguel Arteta
  • Guillermo del Toro
  • Chris Eyre
  • Taika Waititi
  • Nina Menkes
  • Claudia Weill
  • Donna Deitch
  • Joyce Chopra
  • Mary Harron
  • Jennie Livingston
  • Penelope Spheeris
  • Martha Coolidge
  • Kelly Reichardt
  • Debra Granik
  • Alice Wu
  • Eliza Hittman
  • Susan Seidelman
  • Adrienne Shelly
  • Joan Micklin Silver
  • Ralph Bakshi
  • Don Bluth
  • Will Vinton
  • Suzan Pitt
  • Don Hertzfeldt
  • Bill Plympton
  • John and Faith Hubley
  • George Griffin
  • Mark Osborne
  • Candy Kugel
  • Janie Geiser
  • Fred Mogubgub
  • John Canemaker
  • Joanna Priestley
  • PES
  • Nina Paley
  • Nicole Holofcener
  • Tom McCarthy
  • Alex Garland
  • Patty Jenkins
  • Sarah Polley
  • Sian Heder
  • Lena Dunham
  • Greta Gerwig
  • Miranda July
  • Bette Gordon
  • Nancy Savoca
  • Todd Haynes
  • John Waters
  • Greg Araki
  • Sean Baker
  • Lodge Kerrigan
  • Alex Ross Perry
  • Jeff Nichols
  • Mike Nichols
  • Henry Jaglom
  • Jim McBride
  • Jonas Mekas
  • Mark Rappaport
  • Andrew Bujalski
  • John Cameron Mitchell
  • Gus Van Sant
  • Steve James
  • Wim Wenders
  • Jim McKay
  • Bo Burnham
  • Joel and Ethan Coen
  • Mark and Jay Duplass
  • Sam Raimi
  • Josh and Benny Safdie
  • Joe Swanberg
  • Rian Johnson
  • Christopher Guest
  • Alan Rudolph
  • James Gray
  • Andrea Arnold
  • Robert Eggers
  • George A. Romero
  • Wes Craven
  • John Carpenter
  • Yorgos Lanthimos
  • Ari Aster
  • Paul Schrader
  • Alex Kendrick
  • Mike Mills
  • Joe Wright
  • Jim Jarmusch
  • Rob Nilsson
  • Zach Braff
  • George Clooney
  • James Mangold
  • Sam Mendes
  • Spike Jonze
  • Errol Morris
  • Martin Scorsese
  • Sam Fuller
  • John Cassavetes
  • Brian de Palma
  • Robert Downey Sr
  • Norman Mailer
  • Andy Warhol
  • Kenneth Anger
  • Herk Harvey
  • Ron Rice
  • Robert Frank
  • Kent Mackenzie
  • Neil Jordan
  • James Marsh
  • Greg Mottola
  • Jon Favreau
  • Bennett Miller
  • Jonathan Caouette
  • Larry Clark
  • Abel Ferrara
  • Michel Gondry
  • Wes Anderson
  • Noah Baumbach
  • Sofia Coppola
  • Kathryn Bigelow
  • Allison Anders
  • Barbara Kopple
  • Shirley Clarke
  • Barbara Loden
  • Roger Corman
  • Paul Bartel
  • Herschell Gordon Lewis
  • John Sayles
  • Jonathan Demme
  • Tom DiCillo
  • Carson Davidson
  • Doug Liman
  • Darren Aronofsky
  • Jason Reitman
  • Godfrey Reggio
  • Ross McElwee
  • Alexander Payne
  • Kimberly Peirce
  • David O. Russell
  • Kevin Smith
  • David Mamet
  • Quentin Tarantino
  • Tim Burton
  • Neil LaBute
  • Todd Solondz
  • Terry Zwigoff
  • David Cronenberg
  • Christopher Nolan
  • Whit Stillman
  • Todd Field
  • Richard Kelly
  • Jean-Pierre Jeunet
  • Julian Schnabel
  • Jared Hess
  • Charlie Kaufman
  • Hal Hartley
  • David Lynch
  • David Fincher
  • Steven Soderbergh
  • Rob Reiner
  • Oliver Stone
  • Dennis Hopper
  • Shane Carruth
  • Anthony Minghella
  • Harmony Korine
  • Richard Linklater
  • Robert Altman
  • William Friedkin
  • James Cameron
  • Damien Chazelle
  • Tom Ford
  • Michael Moore
  • Mel Gibson
  • Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Vincent Gallo
  • Paul Haggis
  • Bryan Singer
  • James Toback
  • Allen Baron
  • Woody Allen

    List of selected notable and important Pre-Indiewood films

Pre-1950s

  • City Lights ≈
  • Reefer Madness
  • The Great Dictator ≈
  • Rebecca ≈

    1950s

  • Little Fugitive ≈
  • Salt of the Earth ≈
  • 3rd Ave. El
  • The Adventures of an *
  • Attack of the Crab Monsters
  • On the Bowery ≈
  • 12 Angry Men ≈
  • The Screaming Skull
  • Attack of the Giant Leeches
  • Moonbird
  • Plan 9 from Outer Space
  • Pull My Daisy ≈
  • Shadows ≈
  • Some Like It Hot ≈

    1960s

  • The Flower Thief
  • Munro
  • Psycho ≈
  • The Savage Eye
  • The Beast of Yucca Flats
  • Blast of Silence
  • The Connection
  • The Exiles ≈
  • Something Wild
  • Carnival of Souls
  • The Hole ≈
  • Beach Party
  • Blood Feast
  • The Cool World ≈
  • The Brig
  • Help! My Snowman's Burning Down
  • Nothing But a Man ≈
  • Two Thousand Maniacs
  • Time Piece
  • Vinyl
  • Chafed Elbows
  • Chelsea Girls
  • A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature
  • Manos: The Hands of Fate
  • The Wild Angels
  • The Box
  • David Holzman's Diary ≈
  • Dont Look Back ≈
  • The Graduate ≈
  • The Jungle ≈
  • Portrait of Jason ≈
  • Spider Baby
  • The Trip
  • Who's That Knocking at My Door?
  • Beyond the Law
  • Faces ≈
  • Greetings
  • Murder a la Mod
  • Night of the Living Dead ≈
  • No More Excuses
  • Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One ≈
  • Wild 90
  • Easy Rider ≈
  • Midnight Cowboy ≈
  • Putney Swope ≈

    1970s

  • The Further Adventures of Uncle Sam
  • Husbands
  • Is It Always Right to Be Right?
  • Maidstone
  • Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song ≈
  • Wanda ≈
  • Let's Scare Jessica to Death
  • McCabe & Mrs. Miller ≈
  • THX-1138
  • Two-Lane Blacktop ≈
  • The Last House on the Left
  • Pink Flamingos ≈
  • Badlands ≈
  • Coffy
  • Mean Streets ≈
  • Messiah of Evil
  • Sisters
  • Benji
  • Dark Star
  • Female Trouble
  • The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
  • A Woman Under the Influence ≈
  • Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
  • Coney
  • Head
  • Hester Street ≈
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show ≈
  • Harlan County U.S.A. ≈
  • Alambrista! ≈
  • Eraserhead
  • The Hills Have Eyes
  • Killer of Sheep ≈
  • Opening Night
  • Dawn of the Dead
  • Gates of Heaven
  • Girlfriends ≈
  • Halloween ≈
  • Martin
  • Northern Lights
  • Piranha
  • The Whole Shootin' Match
  • Asparagus
  • Bush Mama ≈
  • ''Heartland''