independent films

The number of independent films that have been released simultaneously in theaters and on video on demand has doubled from 2009 to 2011 and is expected to rise an extra 30% this year. Case in point is the Kristen Dunst vehicle Bachelorette, which made $418,000 in theaters and $5.5 million from VOD.

Said Kevin Iwashina, managing partner of film production and sales company Preferred Content, "It has become harder to generate revenue from independent movies [in theaters] and VOD is our next best option. This is how we're putting a Band-Aid on our business."

Investing in independent films can be risky business: with no guarantee that you'll ever see a return on your seed money. But the Wall Street Journal talks to some financial experts about some safer ways to invest in indies.

Writer Zachary Wigon notes the distinct absence of mid-budget Hollywood films on 2011's top ten highest-grossing films and what it means for the future of Hollywood and independent cinema. He writes, "The current shifts in the indie world—fewer indie distributors, smaller acquisition deals, and less money financing indie, especially artier, fare—align with where the studios are headed. As financing indies has become tougher, indie filmmakers who might otherwise be making more challenging work have moved toward genre filmmaking.

Producer Todd Sklar and director Dean Peterson give 7 reasons why they decided to release their feature film Incredibly Small for free on the Internet.

Says Peterson, "We set out to make an interesting movie because we were excited about making movies, and I think we should take the same approach in the release and do it in an interesting way that we’re excited about. Let’s rattle the cage a bit even if it means we don’t make back quite as much money. The opportunity to shake things up is worth whatever the shortfall is."

In a post on IFP, Mynette Louie talks about the need to revive the "dying artform" that is true independent filmmaking.

Mashable profiles the relatively new concept of creating "pilots" for potential feature film projects, something producer Peter Katz recently got involved in with the short film, "Already Gone."

Ever-present at the Tribeca Film Festival, Edward Burns talked to Entertainment Weekly about the state of indie films today.