Slamdance is celebrating the very best indie movies from 2024 with an inaugural awards ceremony aptly referred to as The Indies. The Slamdance Movie Competition introduced Wednesday that its new annual ceremony will toast “the spirit of actually unbiased filmmaking” on December 9 on the DGA Theater in Los Angeles. Actor/comedians Nic Novicki (“Boardwalk Empire,” “The Sopranos,” “Ramy”) and Steve Manner (“Ramy”) will host.
An attention-grabbing caveat, although: For movies to be eligible on the ceremony, options should not have held their world premieres at Sundance, SXSW, or Tribeca. Nevertheless, nominees will need to have performed at a number of home movie festivals during the last calendar 12 months main into the ceremony. The Indies are also staying home, with a concentrate on narrative and documentary options from filmmakers solely in North America.
“Unbiased U.S. and Indigenous filmmakers really feel uncared for and deserted,” stated co-founder Paul Rachman in a press assertion. “The present panorama for recognizing recent voices in cinema has by no means been extra bleak as a result of ongoing toll of a studio, tech, subscription-controlled panorama. This inaugural 12 months of The Indies, coinciding with the Slamdance Movie Competition’s transfer to Los Angeles, can spark the popularity and assist these movies and filmmakers deserve from Hollywood and the Movement Image trade at giant.”
Co-founder Ben Umstead added, “To rectify this sense of abandonment, we went straight to the filmmakers. The truth that we weren’t asking them to submit and pay a price gave them this immediate sense of being supported. Realizing the anxiousness filmmakers expertise from closed-door techniques, being clear about our growth and nomination course of was additionally paramount. We wished each eligible filmmaker to know that even when they didn’t get a nomination that they had our gratitude and solidarity in serving to create an antidote to the established order.”
Slamdance was based in 1995 to steadiness out the then newly mainstream Sundance Movie Competition. As a substitute, Slamdance centered on even smaller-budget movies with rising filmmakers. The 2025 Slamdance Movie Competition will mark its thirtieth 12 months with a transfer to Los Angeles and a barely later run starting February 20 by means of 26. Slamdance traditionally occurred throughout Sundance in Park Metropolis, Utah.
Previous filmmakers who screened on the competition embrace Christopher Nolan, Rian Johnson, the Russo Brothers, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Sean Baker, and Bong Joon Ho.
Slamdance Indie Award nominees will likely be chosen from a nomination committee, together with movie critics, filmmakers, and students. The 2024 nominations are dominated by Vera Drew’s superhero parody “The Folks’s Joker,” which was first slated to display screen at TIFF earlier than being pulled from the competition in 2022.
Take a look at the complete record of nominees beneath.
Finest Narrative Function
“Atikamekw Suns” (Chloé Leriche, Director and Producer)
“Free Time” (Director Ryan Martin Brown, Director and Producers Mackenzie Jamieson, Justin Zuckerman, Paula González-Nasser, Nolan Kelly)
“The Folks’s Joker” (Director Vera Drew and Producer Joey Lyons)
Excellent Storytelling Craft Nominees
Chloé Leriche (Author, Editor) and Natalie Lamoureux (Editor), “Atikamekw Suns”
Ryan Martin Brown (Author, Editor) and Byron Leon (Editor), “Free Time”
Vera Drew (Author, Editor) and Bri LeRose (Author), “The Folks’s Joker”
Excellent Technical Achievement Nominees
Glauco Bermudez (DP), “Atikamekw Suns”
Cooper Vacheron (Visible Results Artist), “Free Time”
Courtney McIntosh (Manufacturing Designer), “The Folks’s Joker”
Excellent Ensemble and Casting
Mirotansa Chilton, Jacques Newashish, Wikwasa Newashish, Carl-David Ottawa (Forged) and Chloé Leriche (Casting Director), “Atikamekw Suns”
Colin Burgess, Rajat Suresh, Holmes, Jessie Pinnick, James Webb, Eric Yates, Alex Bliss, Michael Patrick Nicholson, Rebecca Rose Bulnes, and Steve Younger (Forged), “Free Time”
Keris Hope Hill, Melanie Bray, Fixed Bernard, Alex Trahan, Josee Younger (Forged) and Melanie Bray, John Buchan and Jason Knight (Casting), “Rosie”
Finest Documentary Function
“All We Carry” (Director Cady Voge, and Producers Laura Pilloni, Laura Tatham, Rachel Clara Reed)
“Israelism” (Administrators Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsan, and Producers Daniel J. Chalfin, Nadia Saah, Erin Axelman)
“Sweetheart Deal” (Administrators Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller, and Producers Peggy Case, Elisa Levine, Alan Pruzan)
Excellent Storytelling Craft
Cady Voge (Director and Author) and Rachel Clara Reed (Editor and Author), “All We Carry”
Kristina Motwani (Editor), Kevin Duncan (Director), Todd Sills (Co-Director), and Yar Tin Tham (Co-Director), “Residence Is A Lodge”
Karen Sim (Author), Elisa Levine (Director), Gabriel Miller (Director), and Brittany Kaplan (Editor), “Sweetheart Deal”
Excellent Use of Archival Footage
James Cude (Editor), “The Little Pageant That May”
Sara Newens (Editor) and Rebecca Kent (Archival Producer), “Racist Timber”
David Baker (Editor) and Nationwide Geographic Society Archivists Lela Sewell-Williams, Sara Mancho, Renee Braden, Karen Cerka, Kelly Miner, “The Marvel And The Fear”
Excellent Cinematography
Luke Connor (Cinematography), Ben Giesbrecht (Cinematography), Joshua Manyhands (Assistant Digicam), Calvin Stimson (Assistant Digicam), and Anthony Stengal (Extra Cinematography) / “Aitamaako’Tamisskap Natosi: Earlier than The Solar”
Jonathan Lacocque (Director of Pictures) / “O Pioneer”
George Hupka (Director of Pictures), Andrew Manske (Wildlife Cinematography) and Johnny Blerot (Extra Wildlife Cinematography), “Singing Again The Buffalo”
Particular Honorary Awards
The Native Viewpoint Award – Excellent Indigenous Neighborhood Story Collaboration
“Atikamekw Suns”
The Native Viewpoint Award – Indigenous Movie Critic’s Finest Total Choice
“WaaPaKe” (Jules Koostachin, Director)
Narrative Options Committee Renegade Award
Vera Drew, “The Folks’s Joker”
Narrative Options Committee Authenticity Award
Kelli McNeil (Screenwriter and Producer) / Daruma – honoring excellence in genuine illustration of incapacity on display screen
Documentary Options Committee Highlight Award
Emily Sheshkin (Director) and the Silva Household in honor of Jesslyn Silva, “JessZilla”
