TRIBECA + STRONG INDIE FILM MARKET
Reunion Newsletter [6.6.25]
Tribeca this week. It seems like a solid lineup. Nothing that jumps out as holy cow gonna break out major major kinda thing but just lots of solid indie movies. And I’m very happy about the state of indie film right now both in development and distribution. The business model for making personal movies is actually viable today, for the first time in a while. More than anything thanks to entrepreneurs like Efe Cakarel and Tom Quinn. They’re regular heroes, but going against the standard tune again, I think moves that execs like David Zaslav have made generate more value and pipeline for indie filmmakers than they’re credited to be. Make a $250k movie that Jane Rosenthal’s Tribeca festival throws a party for. Meet someone from Neon at the event, along with some rich folk. Make a $1mm movie with their help. Go up a level and get that one into Cannes. Sell it to Mubi and get a cool streaming campaign behind it that gets you into NY Mag or something so people’s parents know you exist. Get set up to direct a studio project at WB or HBO off the back of the buzz, get paid enough money to stabilize for a few years. Keep doing that if you dig it…or make your personal project for $5-25mm as an established person. If it works, you’re legit and have a life as a filmmaker. That’s not only realistic right now, but it’s a worthwhile bet from a VC POV (how everyone who invests in movies thinks now), and a significant enough quantity of individual filmmakers can attain this that it is worth building industry infrastructure around.
Tribeca WhatsApp group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/E07288fvfDD2ZJfOzU0fRw
I have tix to some premieres on SATURDAY to give away. Message if you’d like em.
1. MEET THE PARENTS.
2. TWINLESS.
3 BEST YOU CAN.
4. IN COLD LIGHT.
5. INSIDE.
Don’t ask me for details, look em up pls, let me know if you want em or not. Free.
People always put that stuff in their Substacks, like this is pretty much all free, but it’d be cool if you gave us money. It honestly all goes to Max because he does a lot of work on this. So I’m unlikely to make this all paywalled, I just think it’s ridiculous the amount of things the world expects people to subscribe to and pay for, and it’s more important to me that the messaging gets out…but yeah…it’d be super cool if people who can send money sent money. Because it is a ton of work. And hopefully you dig it.
More on this stuff, Tribeca, etc. I wish there were fewer music / celebrity docs and less focus on them. But I get it, it gets clicks, and those clicks trickle down to the filmmakers in competition and discovery. There’s a healthy ecosystem of low and mid budget movies circulating, they need more attention. What’s most exciting right now is the buy-in from these companies like Mubi and Neon, who are fully invested in movies—not just brand building—and provide a viable business model for speculative filmmaking. The last time speculative investment for filmmaking had a realistic exit strategy was the Netflix cost-plus era 10ish years ago. Since then, every success has really come out of a fortuitous exception. The sales that did recoup were not examples to replicate nor data to build ‘projections’ from. They were the ones that happened to line up perfectly and fill that slot that worked out a few times a year. Nobody could have realistically strategized to those successes. Now there’s a significantly higher likelihood of getting one of those exits, and a lot more intelligent set up one can do.
Buncha movies I haven’t been able to catch up on but aim to. The dude who made Slow West has a samurai movie out called Tornado that nobody talks about. The dude who made The Loved Ones new movie Dangerous Animals looks so fun and it premiered at Cannes Director’s Fortnight, what a cosign. I saw The Surfer, Lorcan Finnegan’s latest psychodrama last year at Cannes. Lotsa fun. Nic Cage of course does his thing.
I watched Mountainhead. It’s pretty accurate for those people I guess, not sure why we really need it as a movie, but it seems like it was quick and painless to make just like it was to watch. Nice movie-of-the-week kinda vibe. Abandons subtlety halfway through and just becomes vapor. But whatever. That’s what it’s supposed to be I guess. And they definitely had fun doing this and lots will have fun watching. I thought one of my personal experiences was way more fun than what they portrayed, but I guess too subtle. One time a major major tech titan died, and I happened to be on a boat with one of his partners. Everyone was on lots of drugs except for me. The guy was called onto, I think CNN, to be interviewed live. He was high out of his mind, like with prostitutes making coquito shakes for him. I knew the guy who died too, so I had to coach him on speaking, which was very difficult for him at the moment. We did the interview with me literally talking words into his ear live on the air that he would repeat back into the speaker phone. It was hilarious. Never watched it. I wonder if it was obvious.
I still want to watch Hurry Up, Tomorrow for Trey Edward Shultz, and also because I do love The Idol as a curiosity and emotional-thought sandbox. To its credit, I felt sooo much watching it, and expect the same. Reza Fahim and Weeknd, same minds. It’s not that this is good or bad, it just is…something. I give it lots of credit. There’s so much out there that makes me feel nothing. This weird Weeknd stuff makes me feel so much. I haven’t even listened to his music since the mixtapes like 15 years ago. But The Idol is sooo weird and I have such a soft spot for it. It’s just unlike anything else out there, and I also lived through that time period that Reza is writing about…literally with him. I was at his parties back when they were hatching all of this, with people like Moses. So to see what they made of it, as a narrative, it’s just so effusive. I really credit them for going for it, even if it misses spectacularly…so much cooler than those who just follow.
Maybe I just enjoy watching these things like Mountainhead and The Idol because they portray experiences I’ve had. I don’t know. But to me, they feel much more thought-provoking and discussion worthy than a lot of the ‘content’ out there. These are at least people making personal work, going for…something.
I want to watch Sister Midnight. Dying to get a chance to watch Ran again in theaters. Wondering what they did with the colors. Really want to catch some Monica Vitti’s at FSLC. I’d love to carve out a day and just sit in there and watch four in a row and leave my phone at home. What a dream that would be.
Bleak Week programming at Paris is amazing. I’m going to give intros for some of them, I think Monday and Tuesday Fat Girl and Incendies. I need to figure out schedule. Heavy movies all around. Very excited for Christiane F restoration, Sweet Hereafter I’ve never seen in theater. Naked is a punishing treat.
[Folks can use the code BLEAK1 to unlock a special $12 ticket price online (no added fees!) or in person at the Paris box office.]
Last week double feature of Bad Shabbos and Rebel Ridge one of my best movie days ever. Sunday brunch crowd of old NYC Jews at Bad Shabbos were so fun and informative to have the Q+A with after. Then Rebel Ridge audience was electric. Only time it’s played theaters here. Incredible watch experience. So happy they did it.
Oh did I just not talk about Tribeca at all. Um. Well. I hope OKC destroys Indiana. At least they’re a cool group of guys. Indiana are such losers. I don’t mean because they beat us. Haliburton is just a loser. Shai is cool. Shai’s dad is the coolest. Haliburton’s dad is a total weirdo loser. KAT is a loser too. Hart is a cool guy, but not all of our guys are. NBA is full of losers right now, it’s really weird. Anthony Edwards and SGA are cool guys. Problematic maybe, arguably, but cool guys. I want to watch them more. I’m sorry but I’m superficial. I like movies. I like movie stars. I like my NBA players to be cool. I enjoy watching Tyrese Haliburton less than I enjoyed watching Reggie Miller even, who was a total dweeb and is even worse now. But he was a good villain. Tyrese is a TikTok villain. He’s a biter. Gen Z internet kid. Tatum too, a wannabe. He won, but he’s still a loser.
POST-GAME EDIT: ugh. well. ok. gotta always remember Willam Goldman’s #1 lesson.
Anyway ok I’ll stop rambling about things. Go watch movies at Tribeca Film Festival.
Oh I went to Michael Heizer’s THE CITY installation in Nevada desert last month. I don’t think I even mentioned. It was entirely worth it. Incredible place and experience. If you can get yourself in please do it. Get sunrise if you can.
— Sean Glass @sdotglass
EVENTS (reunion.eventive.org )
NEWS
The important stuff on the important stuff. TL;DR + links if you want more.
50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee 2025 [Moviemaker] Remember always Film Freeway is the devil.
Hollywood Has Left L.A. [Vulture] This isn’t the fun exciting victory lap article you think it is. It’s sad. It’s about people’s lives. It’s not about Los Angeles culture being an internationally permeated virus now being stamped out. It’s about earnest innocent working folks making what they thought were innocuous decisions that turned out to upend lives. It’s not Chinatown, where corruption at the top lead to the downfall of the town. It sounds like entrenched incumbents underestimated thirsty newbies, and those thirsty newbies were thirstier than they anticipated, and worldly events combined to totally unseat Los Angeles. I don’t entirely hate Los Angeles. I hate aspects of it, and I love spending very little time there, but I respect it. Basically how I feel about Netflix, and some other organizations. They are vital for our ecosystem; provide a few bright spots artistically, and most importantly provide a very healthy ecosystem that feeds many who get to build lives around this art form. Los Angeles is the biggest machine there ever was that feeds the movies. I don’t think the good movies have come from Los Angeles since the 90s. But that doesn’t make Los Angeles any less vital. We need it. I hate it. But we need it. And I also love it. But I won’t close this without saying it. NYC is the best. NYC is the best place in the world to find and develop ideas. Los Angeles is the best place in the world to bring them infrastructure. LA is where you go to market yourself. LA is where you go to get a job. You may call your job filmmaking, or creative this or that, but it’s a job. You’re satisfying a contract. In NYC you make things. You come up with ideas, collaborate with people, and present them to audiences. It’s the best place in the world for that. LA has never touched NYC’s ability to work ideas. NYC needs LA as its counterpoint though. LA is the younger brother who sells out and gets the finance job that provides the family stability in contrast to the artsy one’s ups + downs. We’re all tryna make stuff. Different flavors. But everything is valuable. I hope LA figures it out.
Would You Pay $400 Million for This Movie? [THR]
Where Does Tom Cruise Go From Here? [Vulture]
Tom Cruise Awarded Guinness World Record After Doing 16 Burning Parachute Jumps During Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Filming [Variety]
Blumhouse in Talks to Buy Saw Franchise From Twisted Pictures [THR] Rights would return to James Wan, who helmed the first film and helped launch the franchise.
Cillian Murphy Won’t Appear in 28 Years Later Trilogy Until End of Second Movie; Danny Boyle Hopes His Casting ‘Gets the Third Film Financed’ [Variety] Getting out ahead of this one before the first film hits theaters.
Denzel Washington Warned Michael B. Jordan That Overexposure Hurts Movie Stars: ‘Why Pay to See You on a Weekend if They See You All Week for Free?’ [Variety]
George Clooney Previews Saturday’s Live Telecast Of ‘Good Night, And Good Luck’ On CNN: “Some Networks Aren’t Really Up For Doing This Right Now”[Deadline] Worth checking out!
Academy Museum to Host Marilyn Monroe Exhibit Honoring the Late Icon on Her 100th Birthday [IndieWire]
Thomas Vinterberg’s Debut Series ‘Families Like Ours’ Premieres June 10 on Netflix [Deadline]
Tom Felton returns to the role of Draco Malfoy for Harry Potter Stage Play. Not a Harry Potter guy but this is very very cool.
A lovely watch.
WATCH
Monica Vitti: La Modernista [Film Linc]
Ghost Trail [Film Linc]
Israel Film Center Festival [Tickets]
Television Event [Film Forum]
The Last Twins, w/ filmmakers in person [Quad]
Sunlight, w/ filmmakers in person [Quad]
Happiness, new 4K restoration [IFC]
JUNE 14: With Todd Solondz in person at the [Paris]
Echo Valley [IFC]
A Clockwork Orange [IFC]
Before Sunset [IFC]
HITCH! The Original Cinema Influencer series, continues through June 29 [Paris]
Bleak Week New York, June 8-14 [Paris]
Use the code BLEAK1 to unlock a special $12 ticket price online (no added fees!) or in person at the Paris box office.
Roxy Reelness series. [Full lineup + tickets]
Velvet Goldmine, Magnolia, Buffalo ‘66—all in 35mm + more [Metrograph]
The Raid: Redemption, Alien, Jackass 3D, Stagecoach, and District 13 [MoMI]
Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us – Part II [Japan Society]
JUNE 11:
Live event to coincide with Twin Peaks: The Return hitting MUBI.
JUNE 16:
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s long-awaited Cloud.
JUNE 20-26:
The Other America: A Cosmology of Jordan Peele’s Us series—including Peele’s personal 35mm print. [Film Linc]
JUNE 25:
Nightbreed, w/ special guests [Film Linc]
STREAMING
Celebrating Gene Hackman series [Criterion]
Club Zero [Film Movement+]
Emmanuelle [VOD]
Female Perversions [VOD]
Kingdom of Heaven (Director’s Cut Roadshow Version) [VOD]
Johnnie To Essentials series [Criterion]
Magic Farm [MUBI]
Presence [Hulu]
Sinners [VOD]
The Surfer [VOD]
Việt and Nam [MUBI]
Vulcanizadora [VOD]
ON OUR MIND
Luc Besson & Caleb Landry Jones reteam for Dracula—first look.
Waiting for Britney Spears by Jeff Weiss. On sale this week. There's that piece somewhere about how Britney Spears is the heart of Spring Breakers and how really our comprehension of what happened surrounding her lead to all of what cinema is today. If you're into that thread at all...this book is probably for you.
Mike Mills directs Saoirse Ronan for the Talking Heads anniversary release.
35mm to 4K Film Scan w/ Scanners Inc. Learn more over at their [Patreon]
When Wes Anderson gives you a compliment.
