Sitemap - 2025 - Hope For Film
Good Things In Cinema Biz 2025, Part 2
The 10 Crucial Steps Of NonDē Distribution
THE MOVIES WILL BE REVOLUTIONIZED
Resources: Film Financing, vol 1
INVISIBLE NATION: HOW TO FIGHT AUTHORITARIANISM -- the virtual event series, pt.2
Decarceration Takes Over HopeForFilm
How To Build The Right Festival Strategy For You & Your Film — in 30+ Steps
"Slow Distro" requires three campaigns, each with distinct strategies.
How and why we built our audience
We Are Releasing Our Movies Wrong
The HopeForFilm INVISIBLE NATION Distribution / NonDē Exploration CaseStudy Overview, v1.0
Upcoming Events... featuring Yours Truly
Is Movie Marketing Now Truly Broken?
Distribution Case Study Masterlist v1.0
Resources: Current Microcinemas & Underground Film Circuits
Why NonDē does what it does so well.
We need to recognize some TRUTHS & ATTRIBUTES about Film Festivals
Things I Love: Chris Ware's Movie-related Posters and Art
Hey Substack, where's our film category?
EntStrategyGuy’s The Five: Antitrust, Sustainability and the Business Newsletters You Should Read
But what do we call it? The rise of a NEW film style or movement...
Daring to dream of “truly free film” and a home for it
Behavioral Practices To Elevate Your Filmmaking (& Its Impact)
Resources: Digital & Streaming Infrastructure Distribution Innovations
On One's Birthday, What If You Had To Give Everyone A Gift?
you are in a system and need to examine how that system is in you.
The New And The Old May Really Be All The Same
The New Film Criticism: NonDē's Partner in Climb
Our Short History Of FilmStack (so far...)
Resources: Innovations for Microcinema & Underground Circuits
How To FILMSTACK: 30+ Actions To Bring Us All Happiness, Wisdom, Love, and Wealth.
FilmStack Daily Digest Dispatch #2
FilmStack Daily Digest Dispatch #1
TWINLESS: "Aren’t we all telling the same story in different ways?"
Use These Outsider Strategies to Make a NonDē Film This Year
Bring it to the audience as they want -- not just how they are used to.
FilmStack's Resources: more riches than you ever dreamed possible, Ted.
The Popcorn List: Pop Up Series is playing on a screen NEAR YOU!
"All the filmmakers you admire? They didn’t let ANYTHING stop them."
Some of what we should be thankful for in The Cinema Biz, 2025
WHERE TO LAND: "a way of portraying what I sense, but have no language for"
Scattered Notes on FilmStack and Creative Film Education
Resources: Public Television, Government-Funded, and Non-Profit Distribution Innovations
Because dying and living are but the coin itself...
Things I Love: Dan Clowes Movie (Related) Posters
Develop Your Creative Practice: a HopeForFilm Masterclass
Splitsville: "Creating projects and trying to push them forward is the only way you learn."
Hope, Hustle and Hollywood Dreams
Spreading our love to the streets: DIY, Grassroots & Guerrilla Cinema Activations
Fight Song For The Middle Class Filmmaker
30 Thoughts On Picking A Producer’s Rep For Your Awesome New Film
Proof YOU don't need the system to work for you (you can build a better one)
What if FilmStack mined inspirations on a daily basis?
What You Should Know BEFORE You Launch Your Career In The Cinema Industries
The Secret To Connecting Your Film With Those That Want It Most
The New Era Filmmaker's Guide To Today's Realities
Have I changed how I think about cinema -- or is it that cinema has changed how I think?
Resources: List of Current Artist-Run Film Collectives
The film industry's most dysfunctional relationship needs couples therapy (part 2)
Resources: Artist-Run Collectives and Cooperatives
Wanted: Entrepreneurs To Become HEROES Of The New Film Movement
We’re doing it wrong! Let’s change that.
Cursed with the hangover of a scarcity mindset
25 Reasons Why All Filmmakers Should Build Their Own Audiences
Why do we need to call it “NonDē”?
Resources: The FilmStack Community Roster
Independence is still the bullseye.
How Did Our Cinema Ecosystem Get So F'd Up To Begin With?
When You Can’t Find a Seat at the Table
Fifteen years ago, I was campaigning to get us to THIS current moment, albeit a bit FASTER...
Truth is… we are all cray-cray... and delulu too.
In preparation for the coming revolution of The Return Of The Microbudget Film
HFF Watchlist! Dea Kulumbegashvili's recommendations
"NonDē filmmaking is the beating heart of Hollywood."
The Case for Challenging Movies in Uncertain Times, Part 1
Resources: Will any of these 200+ companies finance your movie?
What does it mean for a cinema industry leader to be prepared?
Please invite your friends to read Hope For Film
Five Ideas to Strengthen Film Culture
FilmStack Challenge Of The Month #4: my consideration on effective uses of sound in cinema.
Cinema's Secret Formulas: How to win Sundance.
Why all filmmakers should have their own newsletters (30 Reasons Why)
The FilmStack Manifesto v1.0 (and some accompanying tactics) perhaps?
Our Irritation With Hollywood Isn't a Bug In the System...It's a Feature
From Taipei to LA: What I'm Bringing Home with Me
The Radical Act of the Artist.
"The most fun we have ever had doing anything"
Imagine: the total & utter destruction of everything we have ever loved or admired
This is the game that moves as you play.
Cinema's Secret Formulas: How to advance up the professional ladder
Hello, Sh*tstorm, 2025 — how we make sure the sun shines brightly tomorrow
What makes a movie great? ALL the unsung heroes!
"I do not think that art needs to entertain anyone. "
Returning to the scene of the crime
20 practices to achieve an Optimum Production Mindset
Producing Well: Part 2 of The HopeForFilm Masterclass on Producing
Monthly FilmStack Challenge: How to turn someone into a film lover
5 Things You Can Do to Help Yourself and Make the (Film) World a Better Place
"almost like distributors try to gaslight filmmakers into thinking their films have no value! "
Q: How do you best prepare for your film's distribution? A: far, far, far in advance.
The JUST-RELEASED-FROM-JAIL-AND-NOW-WHAT Adventure
Five Additional Qualities Of Better Film
My Deep-ish Dive Into Theatrical Exhibition
What's the news today & how do we trust it
"if you keep throwing your hat in the ring usually something good will eventually happen"
Genius is not a noun -- but it can be found in a process.
Build Your Audience, Own Your Future
"designed to help build the muscle of sharing"
Five Fun Ways to Break Free from the Algorithm - Before It Breaks You
"We don’t have to pretend any longer that there’s a path we’re supposed to take!"
Let’s Reclaim The Language Of TheFKAFilmBiz
Stop whispering! The 13 new evolutions the FKATheFilmBiz needs to be SHOUTING about right now...
Why do we try to make it better?
An Introduction to Film Producing
Further reflections on working with Ang Lee
What Indie Film Has in Common With the Attention Crisis
"This is the inspiration we need."
INVISIBLE NATION Film Release in Full Bloom
Please value YOUR own attention even more than THEY do.
The hummingbirds come out in the rain…
25+ Tips For Packaging Your Project Successfully
If you change the system you are in, you will also change the work that you create.
Squeezing the lemon of cinema 🍋
How To Improve The Moviegoing Experience... HFF's Monthly FilmStack Challenge #2
"“work creates inspiration” rather than the other way around."
Their lies & chaos inspire our collective action... but we should go play on another field, right?
How to destroy something beautiful... and build it back better... maybe!
What I Learned Producing Ang Lee’s 1st Breakout Hit
"Without chaos, there's no discovery. If everything is planned, everything is expected."
"they have rewired how I think about cinema's place in youth culture"
"When trying to express the intangible parts of your mind and soul..."
Your FIRST look at The Popcorn List 2025 Films!
A small feast of beauty, death, and revolution
Coming to peace with uncertainty
Resources: (Other People's) Advice On NonDē Distribution
Film Financing Masterclass, 2025 edition
"I did not listen to conventional wisdom, I followed my passion..."
Reasons To Be Cheerful (About The State Of Cinema)
Hate To Tell You… It’s Getting WORSE
Why we must change the goals of so-called "indie" film
25+ Good Ideas For The Cinema Industry
Short and fast. Get in, get out. Move on.
"vision, hope and plans... for building a better world"
Let’s admit it: we failed… massively.
Throw out the old way. Time to learn how to do it right.
TRU #11: How to win in Hollywood
The Bad Ideas That Have Infected The Film Industry
Are You Paying (For) Attention?
"putting out an indie film feels like being a 120 lb fighter in a heavyweight competition"
Why I will never be discouraged
What would YOU do if you ran a film studio?
How many ways can you say "it is time to make something happen!"?
How To Stay Sane In This Crazy Business
"Think of this list like a mullet"
TRU #9: Let's save EVERYTHING, okay?
Opportunity Is The Devil’s Playground
TRU #8: What works, what doesn't, and what to quit fast
What to do when bad shit happens
The Film Business’ Recent Inflection Points
You say you want a revolution…
How to improve a director/producer collaboration before it even begins
HFF's The5: 03.14.25 Edition "Takeover"
Do We Really Have To Set Film Budgets For "What The Market Tells Us"?
What would an ideal producer/director matchmaking service look like?
Check it out! The Rushfield Lunch with yours truly.
Do Most Film Directors Actually Want A Partner In A Producer?
Flip it, toss it, weave it, share it.
Cinema's Secret Formulas: How To Save Money
"Stand behind your art, nobody will represent it like you."
The Big Messy: a cinema style that I want but rarely ever get
Sorry to bum you out a bit, but...
May the corporate cinema style of today now die a rapid death please
Cinema's Secret Formulas: Why Non-corporate Cinema Has Tremendous Power
Where Have We Failed: Staged Financing
How to get hired on a great 1990's NYC indie
All films are political, Part 4
These days, everything begs to be a movie.
Recategorizing The Bad And Negative
Cinema's Secret Formulas: How to work with "The Best"... And....The5: 02.09.25 edition
Checking In!... with 2024's The Popcorn List's Films
Substack’s Cinema Community has arrived!
With So Much To Do, Where Do We Begin?
Cinema's Secret Formulas: The Differential
We've Really Got Our Work Cut For Us!
Cinema's Secret Formulas: Why We Don't Think Clearly
How do communities deal with colossal loss and disaster?
If We Addressed The Problems In The Cinema Ecosystem, Would It Better This World?
HFF's The Five: 01.11.25 Edition
HFF's The Five: 01.09.25 Edition
The GOOD Things: Some Additional Add-Ons
Cinema's Secret Formulas: Why Artists/Entrepreneurs Need Better Routines