Venice, Sundance, and the New Film Festival Hierarchy

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 847 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by prominent independent film producer Christine Vachon to discuss the general state and health of the independent film market. She discusses her newest film, ‘Materialists,’ how her company, Killer Films, has lasted 30 years, the challenge of getting challenging films made, where money is coming from in the indie space, and the current film festival hierarchy (02:15). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about the upcoming Darren Aronofsky film ‘Caught Stealing’ (25:58).For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Email us your thoughts! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Christine Vachon Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Danny Kelly and it's officially fantasy football season, which means the ringer fantasy football show is back with the latest news from around the NFL and everything you need to get ready for the fantasy football season.
0:10.9	So join us at the ringer fantasy football show on Spotify or on our new YouTube channel.
0:18.3	It is Wednesday, August 27th. I'm sorry to say it, but summer is officially over.
0:24.4	Tonight's the opening night of the Venice Film Festival, which marks the start of the fall
0:28.5	film festival season. It's Venice, then Telluride, then Toronto, and over the course of two
0:33.8	and a half weeks, we'll get a pretty good sense of this year's Oscar race. These festivals
0:37.7	aren't just for awards, of course. There are also markets for independent films or producers
0:41.8	and sales agents and lawyers take their movies without distribution, screen them, hopefully get
0:47.1	good reviews and crowd reactions, and ultimately sell them to be released around the world. It's a
0:51.8	pretty brutal business, and the fail rate is extremely high.
0:55.3	Even when the buyers bite these days, the margins usually aren't what they used to be. But when a film
1:00.0	really hits, it can be an exciting time. So the festivals are a great place to assess the general
1:04.5	state and health of the independent film market. And nobody is a better expert than my guest today,
1:10.1	the consummate independent film producer Christine Vashon.
1:13.8	Christine has been making movies for decades now. She produced Todd Haynes' first feature, Poison, which won the
1:18.8	grand jury prize at Sundance back in 1991, all the way up to The Materialist, Celine Song's big hit from
1:25.2	this summer. She produced Oscar winners like Boys Don't Cry,
1:28.6	Far from Heaven, Carol, Past Lives. Her company, Killer Films, just celebrated its 30th anniversary.
1:34.3	And she's in Venice right now because, of course, she's got a movie premiering called Late Fame,
1:38.3	starring Willem Duffo and Greta Lee. We taped this chat last week before she took off for Adela Lee,
1:42.9	and we talked about the challenges of getting challenging films made these days, where money is coming from in the indie space.
1:50.1	I asked her to power rank the festivals based on where she most wants to premiere one of her movies.
	...

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