IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York City, an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight brands. It operates the IFC Center.
Releases
IFC Films' first release was a drama in 1999, Spring Forward, directed by Tom Gilroy. Over 550 releases have followed, including:
- Y Tu Mamá También (2001) â€" by Alfonso Cuarón
- Casa de los Babys (2002) â€" by John Sayles
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) â€" by Joel Zwick
- Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980, restored 2002) â€" by Connie Campbell
- XX/XY (2002) â€" by Austin Chick
- Camp (2003) â€" by Todd Graff
- The Brother from Another Planet (1984, restored 2003) â€" by John Sayles
- Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) â€" by Michael Moore
- Land of Plenty (2004) â€" by Wim Wenders
- Nobody Knows (2004) â€" by Hirokazu Koreeda
- Touching the Void (2004) â€" by Kevin Macdonald
- Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) â€" by Miranda July
- The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005) â€" by Rebecca Miller
- The Baxter (2005) â€" by Michael Showalter
- Transamerica (2005) â€" by Duncan Tucker
- Sherrybaby (2006) â€" by Laurie Collyer
- This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) â€" by Kirby Dick
- Wordplay (2006) â€" by Patrick Creadon
- I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2007) â€" by Jeff Garlin
- Mister Lonely (2007) â€" by Harmony Korine
- My Winnipeg (2007) â€" by Guy Maddin
- Strangers (2007) by Guy Nattiv and Erez Tadmor
- Afterschool (2008) â€" by Antonio Campos
- 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2008) â€" by Cristian Mungiu
- Paranoid Park (2008) â€" by Gus Van Sant
- Mad Detective (2008) â€" by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai
- Home Movie (2008) â€" by Christopher Denham
- Che (2008) â€" by Steven Soderbergh
- I Sell the Dead (2008) â€" by Glenn McQuaid
- Flame & Citron (2008) â€" by Ole Christian Madsen
- The Disappeared (2009) â€" by Johnny Kevorkian
- The Wild Man of the Navidad (2009) â€" by Duane Graves and Justin Meeks
- Dead Snow (2009) â€" by Tommy Wirkola
- Pontypool (2009) â€" by Bruce McDonald
- Life During Wartime (2009) â€" by Todd Solondz
- Americanese (2009) â€" by Eric Byler, adapted from a novel by Shawn Wong
- Looking for Eric (2009) â€" by Ken Loach
- Antichrist (2009) â€" by Lars von Trier
- The Killer Inside Me (2010) â€" by Michael Winterbottom
- The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009) â€" by Tom Six
- Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010) â€" by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg
- The Other Woman (2010) â€" by Don Roos
- Fish Tank (2010) â€" by Andrea Arnold
- Super (2010) â€" by James Gunn
- The Possession of David O'Reilly (2010) â€" by Andrew Cull (writer, co-director) and Stephen Isles (co-director; as Steve Isles: producer, composer)
- Peep World (2010) â€" by Barry W. Blaustein
- Vincere (2010) â€" by Marco Bellocchio
- We Are What We Are (Somos Lo Que Hay) (2010)
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) â€" by Werner Herzog
- The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2011) â€" by Tom Six
- Chalet Girl (2011) â€" by Phil Traill
- Salvation Boulevard (2011)
- Sleepwalk with Me (2012) â€" by Mike Birbiglia
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012)
- Errors of the Human Body (2012)
- ATM (2012) â€" by David Brooks
- The Moth Diaries (2012) â€" by Mary Harron
- Fury (2012) â€" by David Weaver
- The Angels' Share (2012) (as IFC Midnight) â€" by Ken Loach
- Grabbers (2012) â€" by Jon Wright
- On the Road (2012) - by Walter Salles
- Frances Ha (2012) - by Noah Baumbach
- Sightseers (2013) â€" by Ben Wheatley
- Crystal Fairy (2013) â€" by Sebastián Silva
- The Look of Love (2013) - by Michael Winterbottom
- Welcome to the Punch (2013) - by Eran Creevy
- Dealing with Idiots (2013) â€" by Jeff Garlin
- The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2013) â€" by Chris James Thompson
- The Canyons (2013) â€" by Paul Schrader
- Maniac (2013) â€" by Franck Khalfoun
- The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) (2014) â€" by Tom Six
- Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013) â€" by David Lowery
- The Face of Love (2013) - by Arie Posin
- Almost Human (2013) - by Joe Begos
- Finding Vivian Maier (2013) - by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel
- Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) - by Abdellatif Kechiche
- The Best Offer (2014) - by Giuseppe Tornatore
- Boyhood (2014) - by Richard Linklater
- Camp X-Ray (2014) - by Peter Sattler
- Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) - by Olivier Assayas
- God's Pocket (2014) - by John Slattery
- Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (2014) â€" by Chiemi Karasawa
- Liberal Arts (2012) - by Josh Radnor
- 5 to 7 (2014)
- At the Devil's Door (2014) - by Nicholas McCarthy
- Before I Disappear (2014) - by Shawn Christensen
- The Babadook (2014) - by Jennifer Kent
- Two Days, One Night (2014) - by the Dardenne brothers
Video on Demand (VOD) and DVD
IFC has several ventures in video on demand (VOD), available through cable television pay-per-view, Apple iTunes, and Blockbuster's Movielink.
IFC First Take
IFC First Take, launched in 2006, combines a limited theatrical release with availability the same day by VOD. The films show in IFC's New York theater IFC Center, as well as other theaters that may participate. Landmark Theatres were the first outside theaters announced.
Day-and-date vs. release windowing
Traditionally, in the United States, theatrical movies are released with windows separating the theatrical run, then airline and paid hotel showings, then DVD release, then pay-per-view cable, then premium cable, also called pay TV (HBO, etc.), then broadcast and basic cable. VOD services, starting with the first legal one, Movielink, generally gained the rights to the same window as pay-per-view. This put them after the DVD release. Making VOD release simultaneous with DVD is called day-and-date, or collapsing the window.
IFC First Take goes further, with day-and-date meaning simultaneous theatrical release and VOD, though DVD may come months later. For instance, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With came out on First Take in September 2007. The full retail DVD release occurred on April 15, 2008, though Blockbuster's "exclusive" rental was made available in March 2008.
In a March 2008 panel discussion, IFC Film's Arianna Bocco stated that all its films would be released through First Take.
Initial releases
Films initially distributed by IFC First Take included:
- C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) â€" a mockumentary by Kevin Willmott
- American Gun (2005) â€" by Aric Avelino
- I Am a Sex Addict (2005) â€" by Caveh Zahedi
- Russian Dolls (2005) â€" by Cédric Klapisch
- Sorry, Haters (2005) â€" by Jeff Stanzler
- Three Times (2005) â€" by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
IFC Festival Direct
IFC Festival Direct, announced in 2008, is VOD distribution for films not slated for theatrical release in the United States. Non-theatrical films are known as straight-to-video, but the idea of Festival Direct and other new models is to remove the stigma of that term.
Initial releases
The first films scheduled for IFC Festival Direct were:
- Jar City (2006) â€" by Baltasar Kormákur, an adaption of a novel by Arnaldur Indriðason
- It's a Free World... (2007) â€" by Ken Loach
- Beautiful Ohio (2006) â€" by Chad Lowe
- Puffball (2007) â€" by Nicolas Roeg
- Good Time Max (2007) â€" by James Franco
Apple iTunes
In 2006 IFC Films began distributing some films to Apple iTunes. The first batch were thirteen films with nominations in the Independent Spirit Awards.
References
External links
- Official site
- Sundance Selects (redirects to ifcfilms.com)
- IFC Films at the Internet Movie Database
