NWFF is partnering with MovieMaker Magazine, the world’s best-selling independent movie magazine, to bring a unique industry initiative exclusively to Local Sightings. Select filmmakers will be allowed to pitch their project IN PERSON to MovieMaker’s Editor-in-Chief, Tim Rhys, and if selected, will gain a bountiful budget boost for their film via MovieMaker Production Services.

The MMPS program doubles a producer’s spending power for each dollar invested.

Writer-director-producer Hus Miller saved 10 percent of his debut feature’s budget with MMPS. In an interview with MovieMaker, Miller explains, “With a low budget film, once you go into production, money is flying out the window. It’s amazing how quickly money gets spent. Making a low budget film you have to be extremely careful with how you’re spending your money because once that’s gone ‘the studio’ isn’t giving you any more money. We had a limited amount of funds… With MMPS you can pick and choose the services that you want whether it’s lighting equipment or cameras or post-production or color correction or saving on hotels or anything that MovieMaker can possibly provide. It basically makes your money go much, much further than it normally would.”

Unlike any other program in the world, MovieMaker Magazine has been quietly helping produce select projects via this method for two decades.

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ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR IN-PERSON PITCHES

• Ideal budget range for participating films is between $100,000 and $1 million. (MovieMaker will work with smaller or larger budgets, but this is the range where their services can make the most impact on the quality and completion of a film.)
• Projects should start principal photography within the next 36 months.
• Producers must demonstrate that they have at least $25,000 in cash currently in hand.
• Projects must be planning on or willing to do at least partial production or post-production in the United States or Canada.
• Projects should ideally be feature-length.
• Applications should ideally be feature length narratives or documentaries. However, shorts will be considered. Must demonstrate $25K on hand to invest for features, $10K for shorts.

Contact N.L. Brooks, Contributing Editor, Festivals & Partnerships Liaison at nlbrooks@moviemaker.com to discuss your eligibility and potential to pitch in person!