About Filmmaker

Filmmaker

Filmmaker is a quarterly American magazine covering issues relating to independent film. Founded in 1992 by Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay, and Holly Willis, it is published by the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) from New York City. With a readership of more than 60,000, the magazine includes interviews, case studies, financing and distribution information, festival reports, technical and production updates, legal pointers, and filmmakers on filmmaking in their own words. The ISSN is 1063-8954, and the official website is filmmakermagazine.com.

Founded in 1992 and published by IFP, Filmmaker began with a simple mission: to cover the American independent film scene from the perspective of the filmmakers. Eschewing formal criticism, the magazine synthesizes conversations about the aesthetics of filmmaking with dialogues about its production methods, technologies, financing, and distribution. The founding editor was Scott Macaulay, who led the magazine from 1992 until 2026; the editorial leadership now includes Mike Hogan as Editorial Director and Chloe Lizotte as Content Director.

Publication at a Glance

Filmmaker is a quarterly English-language magazine based in New York City, published by the Independent Filmmaker Project (formerly the Independent Feature Project), an advocacy organization that supports and serves the independent film community. Circulation is reported at 60,000. The first issue was published on October 17, 1992. The magazine has been printed on a regularly quarterly schedule, missing only one print release — in the summer of 2020 during the global pandemic — instead releasing that issue by PDF. It was formerly available outside the U.S. in London but has not been on sale in the U.K. since early 2009.

Founding and the 1992 Merger

The magazine was launched in 1992 as a merger between two magazines run by IFP and IFP/West: The Off-Hollywood Report (1986–1992) and IFP/West's Montage: the Unruly Magazine of Independent Film. The three founders — Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay, and Holly Willis — were filmmakers themselves, and the magazine was founded by filmmakers with an editorial staff active in film and video production, providing what the magazine's own background materials call "a distinctive, highly informative view of the technical, business and creative choices made in the production of independent films and digital cinema."

The Macaulay Years

Scott Macaulay, a New York-based producer, served as the magazine's founding editor-in-chief from 1992 to 2026 — a 34-year run. Along with his partner Robin O'Hara and their production company Forensic Films, Macaulay produced or executive-produced many award-winning features, including Peter Sollett's Raising Victor Vargas, Harmony Korine's Gummo and julien donkey-boy, Alice Wu's Saving Face, Tom Noonan's What Happened Was and The Wife, Jesse Peretz's The Chateau, Bryan Barber's Idlewild, John Leguizamo's Undefeated, and James Ponsoldt's Off the Black. In 1998, Macaulay and O'Hara received an Independent Spirit Award for their producing work. His experience as a working independent producer gave the magazine an authentic voice in covering the behind-the-scenes realities of specialized film.

The 25 New Faces of Independent Film

Each year — typically in the Summer issue — Filmmaker publishes its list of independent film's emerging talent: the "25 New Faces of Independent Film." The list typically contains directors, producers, actors, and animators. Past lists have featured Ryan Gosling, Andrew Bujalski, Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Greg Pak, Oren Peli, Miranda July, Tze Chun, Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass, Zoe Kazan, Lena Dunham, Rooney Mara, Azazel Jacobs, Craig Zobel, Elliot Page (then Ellen Page), and Hilary Swank. Miranda July was selected as one of the 25 New Faces in 2004, and her film Me and You and Everyone We Know was on the cover of the magazine's Spring 2005 issue. The list has become one of the most influential talent-spotting institutions in American independent film.

The MoMA Carte Blanche Celebration

In 2013, the Museum of Modern Art honored the magazine's 20th anniversary with "Carte Blanche: Scott Macaulay and 20 Years of Filmmaker Magazine," a film series organized by Rajendra Roy, MoMA's chief curator of film, and Macaulay himself. The series ran April 4–15, 2013, with Macaulay selecting seminal films and writing all the film notes. The lineup included Darren Aronofsky's Pi, Nick Gomez's Laws of Gravity, Errol Morris's Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, Laura Poitras's The Oath, Todd Haynes's Safe, Debra Granik's Winter's Bone, Hal Hartley's Amateur, Miguel Arteta's Chuck and Buck, Barry Jenkins's Medicine for Melancholy, and Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know.

Editorial Voice and Industry Standing

The magazine has earned the respect of working professionals throughout the independent film and video industry. Its readers include producers and studio executives alongside filmmakers, cinematographers, and crew. By focusing on filmmakers' own words — interviews, case studies, and first-person accounts of financing, production, and distribution — rather than formal criticism, Filmmaker carved out a distinctive niche between trade reporting and film scholarship. The Winter 1992/93 issue's behind-the-scenes account of Laws of Gravity, including a published line-item budget with $33 for prop blood, $48 for Polaroids, and $60 for phone calls, exemplifies the granular, practical focus that has defined the magazine.

Digital Presence

Under Macaulay's leadership, the magazine expanded to filmmakermagazine.com, which carries daily independent-film news alongside the quarterly print features. The site extends the magazine's mission of covering the American independent film scene from the filmmakers' perspective, with festival dispatches, interviews, and industry analysis published between print issues.

The Earliest Issues

The magazine's first issues set the template for everything that followed. Issue #0 (Fall 1992) featured Simple Men on the cover; Issue #1 (Winter 1992/93) featured Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant. The Winter 1992/93 issue's behind-the-scenes account of Laws of Gravity — detailing the financing, casting process, rehearsals, and equipment, and publishing the complete budget — exemplified the granular, practical focus that distinguished Filmmaker from both trade papers and critical journals. The magazine's background materials note that its readers include not only filmmakers but busy producers and studio executives looking for a scoop on talented newcomers.

In 2013, MoMA's Carte Blanche series celebrated the magazine's continuing success as "the IFP publication that focuses on independent film from the filmmakers' point of view" — a description that captures the editorial identity the magazine has maintained for more than three decades.

The IFP and the Magazine's Mission

The magazine is published by the Independent Filmmaker Project (formerly the Independent Feature Project), an advocacy organization that supports and serves the independent film community. The merger of the two predecessor magazines in 1992 united the East and West coast arms of the independent film movement under a single publication — one that has earned, in the magazine's own words, "the respect of working professionals throughout the independent film and video industry." Its readers span feature filmmakers, commercial and music-video directors, busy producers, and studio executives — a broad coalition united by the magazine's insider perspective on the world of independent filmmaking.

Official Website

The magazine's official website is https://filmmakermagazine.com, offering current news, features from the quarterly print edition, the annual "25 New Faces" lists, and subscription information. Founded in 1992 by Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay, and Holly Willis and published by the Independent Filmmaker Project, Filmmaker remains the leading American magazine devoted to independent film.