July 8 , 2016 | POV’s daily list of essential reading for the documentary and independent filmmaking community.
The Oscar race for best documentary is on – here are the early contenders
he race to the Academy Awards is largely believed to kick off every autumn, when film studios typically unveil their slate of serious contenders. But for the feature documentary competition, the gallop often begins as early as January, before the previous awards season has even wrapped.
Read more | Guardian »
Documentary pays? The price of filmmaking – part one
In this special report, realscreen examines the economic pressures placed on some documentary filmmakers working today, and why doc directors – many of whom also play double duty as producers on their projects – aren’t paying themselves for their time. In part one, we look at recent surveys and studies investigating the costs of doc making, while part two, to publish tomorrow (July 8) [editor’s note: part two is not yet live at the time of Doc Memo’s publishing], features funders’ thoughts on transparency around financing.
Read more | Reel Screen »
Documentary Filmmakers Find That an Agenda Helps With Financing
What’s happened to documentary financing over the last decade, said Debra Zimmerman, the executive director of the specialty distributor Women Make Movies, “is the coalescence of a number of different trends, none of which has been really good for filmmakers who aren’t interested in making social-issue docs.” She cited the closing of the National Endowment for the Arts’ regional grants, the Rockefeller Foundation’s decision to directly stop financing film, “and the fact, unfortunately, that we don’t have any real national support for film as an art form.”
Read more | New York Times »
Judd Apatow’s ’30 For 30′ documentary explores the ups and downs of Mets greats Daryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden
Judd Apatow was at a post-screening talk recently for his new movie, “Doc & Darryl,” when asked what it was about the making of his documentary, about the once-great New York Mets’ Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, that most surprised him. “I thought it was going to be a lot more uplifting,”” the filmmaker said dryly.
Read more and watch | Los Angeles Times »
Upcoming festivals and deadlines
This Week
- Deadline: DOK LEIPZIG Submissions 7/7
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival When 7/1 – 7/9
Next Week
- Deadline: I Look Up Challenge Architecture as a Solution Submissions 7/10
- Deadline: IDA Documentary Awards 7/11
Get more documentary film news and features: Subscribe to POV’s documentary blog, like POV on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @povdocs!
