Honors for 2929
Filed under: Independent, Awards, Magnolia, Distribution, Newsstand, Mark Cuban, Cinematical Indie
Though they won't even announced the nominees for their competitive awards until October, the folks at IFP (a group, for the non-independent film freaks among, you dedicated to "serving the independent film community as a source for networking and support while promoting film as a vital and influential public art form") have announced that they will honor Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner of 2929 Entertainment at their annual Gotham Awards this fall. According to IFP exec director Michelle Byrd, the pair are being recognized for their consistent willingness to think outside the box when it comes to film production and distribution. Though their day-and-date release strategy has received significant opposition from theater owners, it's starting to be adopted by other distributors, and seems to have been embraced, at least to a degree, by the viewing public. Said Byrd of the pair, "They are visionaries who have introduced exciting and new distribution models, and who continue to showcase tremendous diversity in the films they produce, release and exhibit." So yeah, she thinks they're pretty cool.Though the awards ceremony doesn't take place until late November, does anyone really think Cuban will have cooled off enough by then NOT to talk about the NBA refs? I'm saying he's got to at least slip in a David Stern reference.
1. The jury's still out on how much the viewing public have embraced day-and-date releasing. Bubble did better on DVD than in theatres, though, and this is why Cuban and Wagner, as owners of Landmark Theatres, should not be considered a force of good for independent film. Keep in mind that Cuban's plan is to show sporting events, etc, on "slow" nights at Landmark. Why is this a concern? Take the example of a 6-screen theatre showing 6 independent films Friday through Sunday. Come Monday, and Monday Night Football, one film has to go. How do they decide which one goes? The one that made the least amount of money. This takes the Hollywood model of betting everything on opening weekend, and forces it on the indie film economy. Indie films, that have less money for marketing, usually rely on word-of-mouth to build audiences. Forcing them to make a big splash opening weekend will lead indie distributors to look for films with bigger stars, making it even harder for smaller indie films to get a theatrical release. This will turn truly independent film into little more than straight-to-video releases. Perhaps that's more cost-effective for distributors like Magnolia, but it's bad for exhibitors, it's bad for the creative opportunities of small-budget filmmakers, and it's bad for lovers of cinema.
Mark Cuban is clearly the new Harvey Weinstein, a loudmouth with a lot of money and a quick temper. His money guarantees that the industry will bow down to him, but for IFP to reward him when he has created what Anthony Kaufman refers to as "the Starbucks of arthouse cinemas" (http://blogs.indiewire.com/anthony/archives/010458.html) is ludicrous. Mark Cuban's bottom line approach is a threat to the health of independent film.
The fact that 2 of his theaters have unionized against him should tell people something about his corporate mentality. 2929's increasing monopoly over independent film should be met with alarm, not accolades.
Posted at 1:00PM on Jun 22nd 2006 by futureoffilm