Daily Talks: The Business of Indie Filmmaking

Explore the opportunities and challenges of independent filmmaking in this panel discussion featuring industry professionals. From funding and production to distribution and audience engagement, panelists will share insights and strategies for navigating the evolving indie film landscape. The conversation will include a Q&A session, giving attendees the chance to ask questions and gain practical advice from experienced filmmakers and executives.

Meet the Panelists:

Natalie Metzger is a Spirit Award-nominated producer and Vice President of Production & Development at Vanishing Angle, where she champions bold, genre-defying independent films. She has brought to life an impressive variety of features and shorts that have earned acclaim across the world, premiering at Cannes, Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW, Tribeca, and more. Her producing credits include It Ain’t Over (Sony Pictures Classics, WGA Award nominee), Thunder Road (SXSW Grand Jury Winner), Werewolves Within (IFC), Greener Grass (Sundance), The Wolf of Snow Hollow (MGM/Orion), The Beta Test (Berlinale), Spoonful of Sugar (Shudder), Poof (Cannes), The Robbery (Sundance), Alden Ehrenreich’s Shadow Brother Sunday (Tribeca), and upcoming Tina Romero’s Queens of the Dead (Tribeca Audience Award). She is currently in post-production on coming of age drama Under the Lights (Lake Bell, Randall Park, Mark Duplass, Nick Offerman) and murder mystery comedy Kill Me (Charlie Day, Allison Williams, Giancarlo Esposito, Aya Cash).

She is also an award-winning writer/director whose credits include feature documentary ALONE IN THE GAME (AFI Docs, Outfest), Hulu’s Bite Size Halloween SLEEP STUDY (Best Horror – Indy Shorts), sci-fi short IMMORTAL (Best Narrative Short – Eastern Oregon Film Festival), and feature documentary SPECIAL BLOOD (Dolores Huerta Award for Best Director). Her feature script AMORTAL won the Gold Prize at the Page International Screenwriting Awards, the Grand Prize in Screencraft’s Sci-Fi Screenwriting Competition, and is in the top 1% of Coverfly’s Red List. Her poignant PSAs and commercials, like “Topless Women Talk NFL,” have been featured in The Washington Post and Vice and have earned top honors such as Platinum “Best of Show” at the Aurora Awards and Telly Awards.
She has been an Artist In Residence at Sundance, Producer in Residence at Film Independent, and an alum of CoverFly’s Endorsed Writers Program and Eastern Oregon’s Filmmaker Residency.
Metzger holds an MFA from CalArts and graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University, where she was also honored with the Sudler Award in the Arts and the Pioneer Award.

Andy McMillan is an accomplished director, writer and photographer. His feature documentary as co-director, Mississippi River Styx (Executive Produced by Rough House Pictures), premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and won the Jury Bravery Award at Mammoth Lakes Film Fest, as well as the Ron Tibet Soul of Southern Filmmaking Award at Indie Memphis and the Audience Award at Charlotte Film Fest. His photographs have been published in CNN, ESPN, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vice and Time. His series PTL was exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and featured on Time Magazine’s Lightbox and CNN’s Belief Blog. He lives in Charlotte with a stubborn bull terrier named Rabbit.