©Independent Film Company
IFC Films is preparing to celebrate its 25th anniversary and will now be known as the Independent Film Company (IFC). The company unveiled a new logo and a customized audio logo that was designed by Adam ‘Adrock’ Horovitz of the Beasties as part of its rebranding efforts.
The Independent Film Company will be incorporated into the newly renamed IFC Entertainment Group, establishing the integrated framework of AMC Networks’ four distinct film verticals. Each brand will maintain their synergistic approach, focusing on bringing quality, independent, and bespoke films to the big screen and throughout the AMC Networks ecosystem.
IFC has released some engaging films last year, such as, “Late Night With the Devil“, “Oddity“, “The Taste Of Things“, “In A Violent Nature“, “Ghostlight“, and the Academy Award-nominated stop-motion animated “Memoir of a Snail“. The company’s upcoming releases for 2025 include “Clown in a Cornfield” by Eli Craig, “Dangerous Animals” by Sean Byrne, which was recently announced for Cannes Director’s Fortnight, and specialty titles like “The Baltimores” by Jay Duplass.
The independent film business remains challenged, with ticket sales down from pre-pandemic levels. Under Shooman’s leadership, IFC has continued to release foreign films and smaller more bespoke offerings, but it has also leaned more heavily on genre movies. The IFC Entertainment Group head said the company plans to take a more curated approach to building its slate going forward.
Head of IFC Entertainment Group Scott Shooman said, “IFC Films is synonymous with taste and terrific curation. With our brand refresh, we are taking the storied foundation of quality, filmmaker first cinema and giving it a fresh face for the evolving filmgoing audience. We are also proud to establish IFC Entertainment Group to further identify how our distinct brand voices cohesively integrate under one roof, showcasing the breadth of our reach, all built on 25 years of delivering the best in independent filmmaking.”
“We do about 50 movies a year. Shudder buys about 30. IFC and RLJE combine for about 20, so we have different needs across different areas,” Shooman said. “Shudder being the leading horror service in the States, we have the luxury of a little bit being in the incoming call business, but we also have the best curators sniffing out who those auteurs are and how to get [movies like] “The Ugly Stepsister” before anyone else does.”
As for the beloved IFC Center theater in New York, which screens IFC Entertainment Group titles as well as repertory releases and first-run independent films from other distributors, nothing will change there, “The Center is an institution. It has a long history. I believe it’s its 20th year this year, and it has a wide variety of films from docs to foreign to repertory that in that location, speaking to the curatorial edge, we have some of the best curators picking what comes there.” Shooman also said., “We still hope to play our films there. It’s not necessarily the right home for the more horror and genre stuff; those may be the exception to the rule, n terms of reinforcing the rebrand and how to get the industry on board with a big change, at least name-wise, to a legacy company.”