Well, the god of billionaires giveth and then taketh away. Or the other way around, I guess. As soon as Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks(tm) lose the NBA championship, the IFP announces that it will give Cuban (and Todd Wagner) the 2006 Gotham Award for, um, all’round awesomeness(?) in independent film. This got people around here talking.
While most of us think Mark Cuban’s film efforts (2929 Productions, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” etc.) are swell, others think he’s a bloviating dot-com poser. Plus, some are concerned about Anthony Kaufman’s coverage of Cuban’s Landmark Theater chain. After hours of bickering, we concluded that, while any new interest in independent film is a good thing, we can’t believe people still watch professional basketball.
On his way out to have lunch with Graydon Carter, the publisher directed me to blog about the IFP and its various grant programs. (See, and you thought this wasn’t going to be about short film.) The IFP has at least three funding opportunities for short films. They include the Chicago Production fund (valued at $100,000), the Market Award for “Emerging Narrative” short film (worth $5,000), and more. Find the entire list of grants here.
The IFP has been around a long time and continues to do good work. So get off their backs about their busy and uncool website.
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