The Independent Film Channel (IFC)

World Screen Weekly, September 28. 2006

COUNTRY: U.S.

YEAR IT LAUNCHED: September 1994

OWNERSHIP: IFC is part of IFC Companies, a division of Rainbow Media Holdings, which is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.

NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS: 39 million

DESCRIPTION: IFC is a digital cable service in the U.S. and the first channel entirely dedicated to presenting independent films, unedited and commercially uninterrupted, 24 hours a day.

SR. VP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT,

RAINBOW MEDIA: Glenn Oakley

EXECUTIVE VP AND GENERAL MANAGER, IFC: Evan Shapiro

VP OF ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING, IFC: Debbie DeMontreux

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: “Almost two years ago, we re-branded the network as ‘TV, uncut’,” says Evan Shapiro, IFC’s executive VP and general manager. “That’s more than just a tagline; it’s a mission statement. We show films as the directors originally intended, commercial free and uncensored. From a programming standpoint, the mission turns into strong points of view told without a filter.”

Independent films are the heart of the channel, and while Shapiro recognizes that the definition of an indie film is changing, he is very clear about what kinds of films fit the channel’s mission. “In a year where four of the Oscar nominees are independent films, and the fifth tries to be, the definition of independent cinema, especially with the mini-majors, is very amorphous,” says Shapiro. “We look for an independent, free vision, something that operates outside the mainstream Hollywood monster. To us, that can be something like Super Troopers, it can also qualify as Moulin Rouge or Passion of the Christ—we haven’t shown it, but I’m not saying we wouldn’t. Independent film is a state of being. It’s a place in your mind and your heart that you can’t really get to by looking in certain sections of the video-rental store.”

Among the channel’s original productions is The Henry Rollins Show, an uncensored talk show. And returning for its second season is Greg the Bunny, a comedy series featuring puppet parodies of IFC films. Each episode will precede the airing of the actual movie being parodied. Films to be parodied include Monster, American Movie, Lost Highway, Being John Malkovich, Dogville and Velvet Goldmine.

Upcoming highlights on IFC include Basilisk, an acquired animated series of 24 half-hour episodes that will premiere on October 6. Set in feudal Japan, Basilisk is about two young leaders of rival ninja clans who fall in love. The series was licensed from FUNimation Entertainment and produced by leading Japanese anime studio GONZO.

There will also be IFC News Special: Terror from Tokyo. This half-hour special outlines the popularity of Japanese horror films in America, tracing their historical roots in Japanese culture, their successful (or unsuccessful) translation in American blockbuster remakes, and finally, how the phenomenon has opened the doors of Asian cinema to America.

Rank is an IFC original documentary from the critically acclaimed director and producer team of John Hyams and Jon Greenhalgh. It brings the gritty reality of the hazardous sport of bull riding into focus.

WHAT’S NEW: For the last 10 months or so, IFC has been significantly increasing the amount of streaming video on its website, which, as Shapiro explains, now accounts for some 50 percent of web traffic. “We created something called The Comic-Con Chronicles about Comic-Con,” explains Shapiro. “We launched that online first and then put it on our network. We did the same thing for a half-hour special, SXSW: Behind the Badge [about the South by Southwest music festival]. We gave one camera to a band, one camera to a director, and one to a fan, and then cut that into a half-hour documentary that aired on the website first.”

IFC also created a whole section on the website called Media Lab that shows user-generated short films by amateur or working directors. “It has a membership of about 12,000 to 15,000 people, who vote on the films, and the best ones make it on our network, inside a half-hour show called Media Lab Shorts Uploaded every month,” says Shapiro.

London-based iD Distribution will be representing a number of IFC titles at MIPCOM. They include Dinner for Five, consisting of 49 half-hour episodes that bring together personalities from film, television, music and comedy for a lively and spontaneous evening of food and banter; Film School, a 10-part documentary series that looks at why so many people want to make movies; and The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, an 8-part series that follows two graduates of NYU Film School who are still waiting for Hollywood to let them put their skills to use.

WEBSITE: www.ifc.com