Fan Question #2: Roger Corman Acquisitions with International Awards
Roger Corman is known for creating exploitation films throughout much of his career, but few people know that he also acquired and distributed many art films in the 70′s. Many of these films received Academy Award nominations in addition to a slough of International Film Awards. This week’s Fan Question reveals which 5 movies Roger Corman refers to in his book “How I Made A Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime“.
Cries and Whispers Written and Directed by Ingmar Bergeman
This movie, filmed in Sweden, is about a young woman dying of cancer at the turn of the century.
Cries and Whispers won an Oscar for best cinematography, but was also nominated for four other academy awards including best director. In addition to the Academy Awards, Cries and Whispers won 12 out of 13 additional awards.
Tin Drum Directed by Volker Schlondorff
Tin Drum, set in Germany during WWI and WWII is an intense movie about a young boy’s distaste for adult life in Nazi Germany.
Tin Drum won an Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film in addition to winning 12 out of 13 other film awards.
Breaker Morant Directed by Bruce Beresford
Breaker Morant was filmed in Australia in 1980.
This movie details the experience of military luitenants who execute their prisoners to deflect attention to the war crimes committed by their superior officers.
Nominated for Best Writing Oscar, Breaker Morant won 12 out of 17 film awards.
My Uncle from America Directed by Alain Resnais
My Uncle the American is a Psychological drama about the lives of three different people and their mental techniques for survival.
Nominated for Best Writing Oscar, this film also won 8 out of 15 other awards.
Cabeza De Vaca Co-Written and Directed by Nicholas Echevarria
Cabeza De Vaca is based on the true story of a Spanish explorer in Mexico and his dealings with the local tribes.
Cabeza De Vaca won 2 out of 3 international film awards.
Fan Question #1: Monetizing Short Films with VOD
Each week we will answer 2 questions, Roger or Julie will offer personal comments on at least one of the questions. Your questions can come through comments on New Horizons blog posts, through our Twitter page, or through our Facebook page. We look forward to interacting with you and providing an inside perspective of the low-budget independent film industry that Roger and Julie Corman are famous for.
This week’s question comes from Mike on twitter:
This is a tough question. New Horizons Picture Corp does not work with short films. This medium was also not discussed at IFTA‘s annual Producer’s Conference, which instead focussed on films that could expect box office distribution.
Short films have traditionally been used by new filmmakers to showcase their work. But the market is evolving and a bit of ingenuity might help launch a profitable short form industry.
The short film medium has not gained a foothold in the marketplace, although some feature length movies (like Toy Story 3) have included shorts in place of previews. Although there is not a large financial demand for short films, YouTube has proven that short media is very popular. One obvious way to monetize this is revenue share on video hosting websites.
Gaining VOD (video on demand) distribution can be difficult for independent filmmakers with only one or two movies. Even more challenging is convincing the large VOD distributors to accept your short film. A quick search for the keyword “short films” on Netflix provides ten results. Each result is a collection of short films, many of which garnered awards or prestigious nominations, other collections are themed.
In short, New Horizons doesn’t have the answer to this question.
Here are a few resources for, about, and in celebration of short films:
Short Film Central: This database of films provides an online outlet and community for short film producers and advocates.
Student Films: This chat room is a resource for short film producers as well as anyone interested in feature length film production.
A Few Short Film Festivals:
