Note: the AI industry is rapidly changing, please keep in mind the publication date of May 27, 2026 while reading. We’ve been sourcing this for awhile, and some of the posts we started with were out of by the time we were ready to publish. Life moves rapidly… and the machines move even faster!

What really is AI? And what is it doing…

When The Pope weighs in on something, you know we all need guidance. And whether you are a believer or not, Catholic or of another faith, we can be thankful that some world leaders put in a great deal of thought to this world we live in and how we might best grapple with the challenges we face.

And FWIW, I for one am with Leo on this one. I side with humans and all that makes us beautiful.

Magnifica Huminatas, indeed!

Even taking all of that into account, particularly the dignity of us, the every day worker… how are we supposed to then go forward?

We can’t run from it. Best to get to know it?

used her spot on the Inspo Challenge to give us a basic primer on AI and how she’s using it as a NonDē filmmaker.

Kimchi Uttapam: Indie Film Journal

#FilmStack Inspiration Challenge: Day 136

Hi FilmStack…

Read more

5 months ago · 1 like · Yeon Jin Lee

But as Jon points out, don’t be surprised though if AI rubs you the wrong way…

How Not to be a TV Writer

The GenAI Ick (Part 1)

GenAI Disclosure…

Read more

4 months ago · 15 likes · 11 comments · Jon Stahl

I mean after all The Youngs are now booing it’s very mention…

The question for us cinemakers perhaps becomes “How do we use it and why?”

And yes, it’s really good to see some folks being fully honest about it… particularly when many others are not.

Dara’s Substack

Everyone Is Lying.

Last year I was at a dinner with showrunners and futurists. It began as a conversation about the future of storytelling. It ended in a shouting match — writers who were using AI on one side, writers who wanted nothing to do with it on the other. It got ugly fast. So when the subject comes up now, I parse words. I speak carefully. I match the room. I’m d…

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2 months ago · 66 likes · 16 comments · Dara Resnik

Some will master it… and some already have.

And to be clear… in case it wasn’t obvious… this is happening EVERYWHERE right now.

Elena's Growth Scoop

The rise of the AI-native employee

I’ve been at Lovable for five weeks and yeah… I’m not in Kansas anymore. This company operates on a completely different level - and as someone who’s spent my entire career in traditional tech, I’m seeing a very different pattern here that’s worth sharing…

Read more

a year ago · 313 likes · 42 comments · Elena Verna

It isn’t just the FKATheFilmBiz that will have its world turned upside down (again).

Robert Reich

The AI Job Apocalypse Is Already Happening

Friends…

Read more

a month ago · 2432 likes · 330 comments · Robert Reich

Maybe it will NOT cost us all our jobs, but only change HOW we do them—at least that’s the takeaway of a recent Gallup poll:

As we pointed out at the top of this post, it certainly feels like you can’t run from AI.

The Honest Broker

The Force-Feeding of AI on an Unwilling Public

A few months ago, I needed to send an email. But when I opened Microsoft Outlook, something had changed…

Read more

a year ago · 1677 likes · 410 comments · Ted Gioia

Not long ago, consumers were invited to purchase hot new tech products, and were excited about the opportunity. Not anymore. Now AI is forced on us everywhere.

Instead of customer service, I get a bot, not a person. When I stream music, bot slop is served up by the platform. When I want to write an email, a bot intrudes. Microsoft not only bundles unwanted AI with its software, but then forces a price increase on me for the privilege of using something I don’t even want.

This is stirring up an intense backlash from the general public. But will AI companies read the room? Or will the force-feeding of AI continue?

Or can you?

The Honest Broker

Anti-AI Laws Now Get Unanimous Support from Left & Right

In just the last few days, the anti-AI movement has achieved a stunning new milestone. It has actually united the Left and Right in a common cause. That’s how much this intrusive tech is now hated…

Read more

10 days ago · 283 likes · 54 comments · Ted Gioia

Across the US, more than 300 bills restricting data centers have been introduced in states and communities. At least 14 states are considering total moratoriums. And in places where politicians hesitate, the public is stepping in—putting voter initiatives on the ballot.

(TH)

… Hollywood’s Job Market?

Stephen Follows goes through how AI is already altering day-to-day work for filmmakers.

StephenFollows.com - Using data to explain the film industry

How AI tools are already changing the jobs of film professionals today

This article is part of my ‘Big Ideas’ series, in which I explore the evolving landscape of the film industry. Each instalment combines data, research, and analysis to go deep on a trend, idea or case study to reshape the film business over the next decade…

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a year ago · 31 likes · Stephen Follows

And writes about the middle class’ vulnerability, particular to Anthropic’s Claude:

“Studios don’t need to announce “AI replacements” for this to matter. They simply stop hiring for tasks Claude can already perform. The creative top — the stars, the showrunners, the marquee talent — remains intact. The middle — readers, assistants, junior development execs — thins out. Development pipelines accelerate, decisions happen earlier and risk is filtered faster.”

The Ankler.

Anthropic Is a $350 Billion Problem for Hollywood About to Strike

I cover the intersection of Hollywood and AI for paid subscribers. I wrote about eight companies doing AI the right way, explored Disney’s deal with OpenAI and dove into what AI performer Tilly Norwood means for actors…

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5 months ago · 8 likes · 5 comments · Erik Barmack

And just in case you forgot, remember it was Anthropic that first stole everyone’s books and all they contained.

Theft is theft though, and they had to pay out.

Have Anthropic and the other AI companies already done the same with our movies?

(TH)

… Filmmaker Workflows?

Is the future of filmmaking as we know it on the line?

Eli’s Substack

AI Generated Video and Celluloid/VHS Emulators

In Jakko Kemper’s now essential essay “Generative AI, Everyday Aesthetic Production, and the Imperial Mode of Living,” he posits AI’s aesthetic promise and subconscious allure as that of a frictionless utopia of aesthetic production, untethered from mastery of an apparatus, instrument, or craft. The totally administered assistant in the form of an LLM, …

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5 months ago · 1 like · 1 comment · Eli Horwatt

…. what is it doing to our entire ecosystem???

Many of the Hollywood Bigwigs have taken AI money when they could:

Fred Koschmann

Hollywood Gets AI-curious

With companies like OpenAI and Anthropic raking in tons of money and as the legacy movie studios falter, some in Hollywood are looking to AI for a lifeline…

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a month ago · 2 likes · Fred Koschmann

After all, Amazon is all-in on AI

Stephen Follows looked at 7,423 Amazon video-related patent filings to uncover which technologies are most likely to reshape how films are developed, produced, finished, and distributed. And AI is ever-present!

StephenFollows.com - Using data to explain the film industry

What Amazon’s patent filings reveal about how filmmaking may change in the future

This article is part of my ‘Big Ideas’ series, in which I explore the evolving landscape of the film industry. Each instalment combines data, research, and analysis to go deep on a trend, idea or case study to reshape the film business over the next decade…

Read more

a year ago · 25 likes · Stephen Follows

At least we don’t have to watch their shows anymore! We can just watch their AI recaps.

… and what about Higher Education?

(TH)

So let’s look at:

The Case Against AI

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/

1. Okay, so you were going to have Marilyn & Jimmy Dean star in your new slasher spectacular, eh?

Better know the ever changing rules.

2. AI generated films are “empty”

In this article by John Semely featured in Wired, called “I Saw The Future of AI Film and It Was Empty”, he discusses his experience attending an all AI Film Festival and the questions for the future of its use in filmmaking that it raised, such as:

As something of a generative-AI skeptic, watching the program raised all kinds of questions. Some of these were pretty pedantic and boring. Like: Does standard movie theater etiquette (re: looking at one’s cell phone) apply during an AI film fest? You could imagine a computer filmmaker might actually like to see another little computer, lighting up in the dark theater, as if approvingly.

Other questions were a bit more existential—or, perhaps, ontological—relating to the very nature of so-called “AI art.” Even when these films were entertaining or nice to look at, I couldn’t help but feel a little tricked. Aren’t those qualities mere impersonations of real films, painstakingly made by real people? And so, aren’t even the “good films” still fundamentally bad?

https://www.wired.com/story/cream-of-the-slop-an-ai-film-festival-screening-left-me-with-more-questions-than-answers/

(AS)

The Case for AI (in some capacity)

1. Is it all a matter of how we use it?

takes a look at the different areas of the creative process where AI tools can be useful or helpful, but then draws the line on where he believes we need to step up and do the work ourselves.

In order to remain the masters of our technology rather than becoming the servants to our robot overlords, we must devise a comprehensive set of rules to clearly delineate where to safely collaborate with the machines as opposed to cognitively offloading the entire creative process. Otherwise we risk leaving ourselves unable to string a coherent thought together on our own (and nobody to call for help because we can’t remember their damn phone numbers!). Because without these rules, once AI enshittifies (and AI is going to enshittify HARD), we’ll be f•cked.

This Analog Life

Where do the robots belong in the creative process? Where do we?

Read more

2 months ago · 11 likes · 3 comments · Zack Arnold

(AS)

2. Could there be an equal and opposite reaction to the machines by all us humans?

FILMMAKER IN THE LOOP

AI won’t replace filmmakers — it’ll reveal who the real ones are.

AI won’t kill indie filmmaking — it’ll crank the volume for the ones brave enough to plug in. You don’t need film school, just fire. Curiosity, nerve, and a cheap camera will do. This next wave belongs to the restless — the ones breaking shit, learning fast, and seeing who’s got the…

Read more

8 months ago · 13 likes · Sasha Santiago

Moving Forward

What should the rest of us do about AI?

Fortunately for you, did an overview recently of what does what and why:

The Ankler

Grok, Kling, Runway: AI Video’s Future Has Hollywood on the Outside Looking In

I cover Hollywood and AI. I wrote about the real reason OpenAI acquired TBPN, the sudden death of Sora, Val Kilmer’s AI-assisted posthumous movie role, Ben Affleck selling his AI company to Netflix and the entertainment industry’s meltdown over ByteDance’s Seedance…

Read more

a month ago · 1 like · Erik Barmack

If you’re making a documentary, follow these best practices

Best Practices for Use of Generative AI in Documentaries / ARCHIVAL PRODUCERS ALLIANCE, September 2024

Remember: AI use will change you and the things you do

And it is going to happen faster and faster and faster.

Klein spells out what many of us feel; anyone who has engaged in any creative process for an extended period time recognizes that what we do and the way we do it is a determining factor on the outcome. I particularly like the focus on the difference between “cognitive offloading” and “cognitive surrender” — but still feel regret on what is lost in the offloading, and not just the surrender.

As someone who wants to feel our cultures evolve as I explore them, I can’t help but feel it is the widespread cognitive surrender that has put the breaks on the rapid change that we once might have enjoyed (or refused). I get that others may not like the immersion in something new when it finally occurs, but that is not me.

The choice to embrace the machines that Klein documents is not the world I have dreamed of, but the one where we recognize how we have to free ourselves from the Narcissistic Trap is. I think we are currently appreciating only a small fraction of what we will one day know how to love, but that is just me.

Free gift article here.

(TH)

Leave a comment

Who’s sharing what, you ask?

TH= Ted Hope AS= Amanda Sweikow SG = TL=

In case you missed it, you can check out Thoughts On NonDē, Vol. 1 here.

Let’s jump in…

Our Current Reality

Yesterday, we did our best to update you on the situation as it sits with threat of further media consolidation and what you could do about it. If you are reading this, it means that you didn’t go slit your wrists, and you are like us: you know there is hope for film.

Perhaps even you were paying attention to what happened at Slamdance last week.? C’mon! Everyone’s talking about it. Well, by everyone we mean and The Ankler. And of course FilmStack. And that’s what we want to catch you up on today: the exciting solutions that FilmStack is bringing to the table while Hollywood shoots itself in the foot over and over and over again.

The Pozzies are gathering and talking about practical steps on how to edge towards utopia. You should be part of it.

Hopefully further media consolidation can be stopped, but either way, we really need to focus on what we want to build for the future.

So where’s the Hope?

Ted’s been talking about this for awhile. He had proposed the Dangerous Ideas Forum several years back, and it was good of Slamdance to make it happen.

Big Transformative Ideas For Our Film Industry

1. Redesign the entire film ecosystem to support the artists.

2. Create an ethical film ecosystem.

3. Worker-owned production & distribution companies.

4. Require Amazon, Apple and Google all to divest of their video businesses, and most importantly their production arms. Whether they become platforms only, or have be fully stand-alone video companies, the debate can hash it out.

5. Time To Break Up Hollywood (#Must Read Matt Stoller’s piece).

6. Full transparency all the time: salaries, employment histories, data on all releases.

7. Give someone else a chance for a change: Ban _____ from making movies for 2+ years (this could be men, old folk, the wealthy, or the opposite! It could be you. It could be me. Maybe we all need to take a break).

8. The FilmBiz is neglecting the young. What would real support of them look like?

9. Films indoctrinate to suppress rebellion, encourage conformity, and solidify power & status quo: male gaze, hero’s journey, false romantic ideals – what would the alternative look like?

10. Require No-Budget filmmaking from all participants. 1:4 films you make should be no-budget. We will all learn new tricks.

11. Hey Oscars! Level the playing field. Institute campaign finance limits/reform for award races. Set some First Principles.

12. Stop the tokenism on DEI. Walk the walk.

13. Creators must own their data. Filmmakers should be entitled to all the data their works generate.

14. Stop support states/countries with filming that have sexist, racist, classist policies. Or similiarly, Hollywood should not allow their films to show (or do business) in places with human rights abuses.

15. Equal Time access on global streaming for indies!

16. Length/time/size limits: Scripts must be under 125 pages and films under 2 hours

17. 5 year term limits at all corporate jobs.

18. Mandatory CEO retirement at 60. End the Grey Succession Ceiling.

Seriously, imagine if we did this for the next five years. The Film Biz may not change faster than it does now but it would change with a better focus and from a different direction. WE determine what we make. WE determine how they find audiences. WE determine the system we are part of. Or at least we could. Don’t you want to?

Hope For Film

Dangerous Ideas & Big Debates Are Needed To Improve & Protect Our Film Ecosystem

The Film Industry has a bit of a stand-offish relationship with “disruption. It’s fascinated and fearful simultaneously. That’s understandable, as the Studio System got lapped by the digital FAANG companies and the Gaming Companies, as they failed to protect, refine, evolve or tra…

Read more

3 years ago · 34 likes · 21 comments · Ted Hope

Post-Slamdance Report

Hope For Film

Can we inspire you with some "Dangerous Ideas"?

First, a special announcement…

Read more

4 months ago · 27 likes · 14 comments · Ted Hope

When Slamdance’s Executive Director, Peter Baxter, approached me to curate the day, I immediately came up with the unifying topic of all that I want to discuss:

The NonDē Way: Fun & Dangerous Ideas To Disrupt What Once Was “Indie” & To Separate From A Broken Corporate Film Industry

It was one of those “plans laying around” that I had. If you’ve been reading HopeForFilm for awhile now, you probably recognize that Dangerous and Disruptive Ideas — and a forum for them — is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s super nice that Slamdance took me up on it. Others have said they would, but ultimately flaked. Slamdance does not seem inclined to waffle.

(…)

NO eight hour lecture at Slamdance this year. Sorry to disappoint you!

But instead we are going to have…

a rapid fire series of ten minute declarations, rants, presentations, and heartfelt suggestions

on why we need our new cinema ecosystem

and what it can look like.

The hope is that people get radical. That they really do present dangerous ideas. That they dream big. That they aim for the north star. Think Utopian. Dream it. And be willing to burn it all down. The phoenix shall rise from their ashes! May the bridges we burn light our way. Even Rome wasn’t burnt in a day.

- Ted Hope

NonDē’s Slamdance Coming Out Party was a blast!

You may have caught wind of the fact that this past Monday was something like when the Sex Pistols played Manchester for the first time — everyone in the audience went and started bands. Here we don’t play rock and roll other than on our devices that is; we make and release cinema instead. A beautiful noise indeed!

From 10A-6P, on Monday February 23rd, at the DGA in LA, we threw out the tired-old formula of panels (hopefully forever), and delivered 19 rapid fire presentations of DANGEROUS IDEAS with a wee bit of loving interrogation after each of the 7 strands. We had Mr. Death cloaked in a dark robe and armed with a sickle just in case anyone dared to run over their ten minute allotment.

The whole day was standing room only. And you could feel the community being born in the room. Good ideas blossomed. Everyone stopped their bellyaching and proposed solutions and actions across multiple ecosystem strata.

Many of the participants have already been sharing their presentations. Word is FilmStack’s OG is writing up an overview and Slamdance is considering releasing some video due to popular demand.

We’ve got an evolution going on, friend! Climb on the bus.

- Ted Hope

Hope For Film

Please don't call it "self promotion"; I am grateful I have all this to share.

We’ve got the sixth and final (for now) virtual event coming up for INVISIBLE NATION…

Read more

3 months ago · 28 likes · Ted Hope

(TL)

And personally speaking, I find a big difference from IRL and reading about things. And to get a sense of what the day was, why not start at the end? I didn’t have remarks prepared and just spoke off the cuff in terms of what I felt:

(TH)

Sneak Peek from the day as documented by Courtney Daniels

The room was standing room only, and while I thought most people would fall off by the end of the day, the room actually got more crowded as the day went on. Between presentations, the facilitated conversations, questions from the audience, and breakout sessions at lunch, it was effectively a seven hour set.

And my feeling was: there was so much more to say.

We were challenged to approach this new era of filmmaking with a radically new mindset from mavericks like Dan Mirvish, Sara’s Soliloquies, Donny Broussard, and Kelli McNeil-Yellen of KLA Media Group.

We rewrote our guidelines for distribution and started to see the truth of how to execute it from industry veterans and path-builders like Jon Reiss-8Above, Ami Vora, and Annalisa Shoemaker.

We got new strategies, from press to coordinated action, for running theatrical exhibitions from the greats like Richard Rushfield, Lela Meadow-Conner @mamafilm, and jake S. weisman.

We grew up and away from tired, traditional models to imagine new ways to work pre-distribution, TV, streaming, and social from successful radical thinkers Peter Broderick, Keith Ochwat, tepper, Jon Stahl, and Adam Lesh.

We learned about real policy change and organizational tactics from incredible community organizers like Alex Rivera and Sanjay Sharma.

Throughout the day, I got to work with legends Ted Hope and Franklin Leonard as the three of us asked questions of the presenters, investigated their big ideas, and facilitated audience questions to make this a truly conversational, non-panel panel of almost 20 artist-thinkers.

And of course none of this would have happened if Ted Hope hadn’t begun writing about non-dependence three years ago and instigated all of us to add our own ideas into the mix. Nor would it have happened if Peter Baxter and the fearless team at Slamdance hadn’t invited Ted to curate a day full of dangerous and fun ideas.

Talk about coordination.

Talk about community.

Talk about action for a better future.

- Courtney Romano, Went to Slamdance, and all I got was renewed faith in the future of film

The Ankler

14 Dangerous Ideas for a New New Hollywood

There are good ideas for Hollywood’s next evolution, and I’ve heard them with my own ears…

Read more

3 months ago · 96 likes · 5 comments · Richard Rushfield

A PREVIEW OF THOSE WHO SPOKE AT SLAMDANCE

The Radical Political Campaign of the NonDē Filmmaker, my talk from Slamdance 2026.

We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.

Albert Einstein said that.

Another way to say that: To solve a problem, you can’t stay at the level of the problem. You have to rise to the level of the solution.

My name is Courtney Romano and I’m a writer/director. Like most of you, I have watched Hollywood solve the problem of: getting audiences to watch films and make money doing it — by staying at the level of the problem. It’s a business problem and they think like a business: big budgets, saturation marketing, safe bets on sequels, and even tax write offs.

Now, let’s talk about non-dependent filmmaking.

Non-dependent filmmaking wants to solve that same problem: get audiences to watch our films, and make money doing it. But it’s not trying to solve that problem at the same level of thinking that created that problem in the first place.

Hollywood only tries to solve it at a business level.

I believe NonDē film should rise to the level of the solution and solve it at a political level.

Before you get nervous that I’m going to get into the weeds of American politics, although I would love to, what I mean here is politics as a high level concept.

Thinking politically means coalition-building around a shared vision.

I believe that when we think politically — building a coalition of filmmakers around a shared vision — that we will make the films we want to make, get audiences to see them, and have materially economically sustainable careers because of them.

- Courtney Romano

Let's Go Again

Went to Slamdance, and all I got was renewed faith in the future of film

Getting to and from Slamdance from New England this week was a challenge…

Read more

3 months ago · 38 likes · 20 comments · Courtney Romano

How Not to be a TV Writer

You Are the Studio Now

Quick Announcement…

Listen now

3 months ago · 16 likes · 5 comments · Jon Stahl

filmjourn

Romance & Affordability

Earlier this week, nondependent film’s very own Long John Silver Ted Hope hosted Slamdance’s Market Monday officially titled…

Read more

3 months ago · 10 likes · 1 comment · jake S. weisman

NonDē’s Digital Campaign Pre-Slamdance: Actionable Ideas to Improve the Cinema Ecosystem

You’ve got to love this teaser!

Hope For Film

The good ideas are here! Time to improve our cinema ecosystem, don't you think?

Good ideas can come from anywhere…

Read more

3 months ago · 13 likes · 2 comments · Ted Hope, Amanda Sweikow, Taylor Lewis, Evan Shapiro, Sophie, Ari Gold, Ellis J. Sutton, Barbara Twist, and Avi Setton

Hope For Film

10 More Good Ideas To Better Our Cinema Ecosystem

Yesterday I started sharing with you all the good ideas we sourced as an appetizer for the upcoming Slamdance “Market Monday” Day Of NonDē Dangerous Ideas. It was a tasty dish, yes…

Read more

3 months ago · 12 likes · 1 comment · Ted Hope, Taylor Lewis, Amanda Sweikow, Sasha Santiago, Kathleen Lingo, Glosserman, Elizabeth Joyce, Hudson Phillips, Alex Rollins Berg, Jen Topping, and Lauren Greenwood

And the “dangerous” (actionable) ideas didn’t stop there…

Between The Perfs

My NonDē Dangerous Idea submission for Slamdance 2026!

My NonDē Dangerous Idea submission for Slamdance 2026! Thank you Ted Hope for being such a force and leading the charge…

Read more

3 months ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Ivan Abreu Luciano

Courtney Daniels

What if you make something that sucks?

The great therapist Phil Stutz talks about how we cannot avoid “the 3 pillars of life: Pain, Uncertainty, and the Need for Constant Work…

Listen now

4 months ago · 15 likes · Courtney Daniels

ENTERTAINING SOLUTIONS

5 DANGEROUS IDEAS

Read more

3 months ago · 2 likes · First Features

also documented dangerous idea in action:

So if you’re looking for ways to join this moving train…

Quick Ways to Get Started in the NonDē Film Movement

1. Subscribe to FilmStack Daily Digest and start getting your analysis and breakdown from thinkers on this platform with independent voices.

2. Subscribe to Deep Dive right the eff now!

3. Volunteer to help curate either FilmStack Daily Digest or FilmStack Deep Dive when the current curators term out, step down, or burn out.

4. Read about the New Film Criticism and subscribe to a swath of amazing film critics who don’t just introduce us to new work, but also help us think and write about films in an altogether fresh, original, personal way. Check out Film Soup Zine run by KLA Media Group and Charlotte Simmons who will be reviewing specifically-NonDē films.

5. Join the NonDē 50 Films Project by signing up here and checking out the dashboard here.

6. Take on building #Resources that others will need — like financiers lists, case study lists, distributor lists, micro-cinema lists — and others that have not yet been built by the community.

7. Build Recommended Best Practices (RBPs) for each stage of cinema process and share them.

8. Take part in new community-building activities like FilmStack’s previous Daily Inspo and Monthly Challenges.

9. Adopt a commitment to total transparency in all you do.

10. Document your process and share it.

11. Share your own NonDē Dangerous Idea. It is never too late.

12. Start talking about it. Let’s bring these ideas into the conversation. At first people will say we can’t do it. That’s fine, let’s talk about it. Let’s bring these big ideas into the rooms with us.

13. Discuss with your team. Be the leader on your production team and bring non-FilmStack filmmakers into the fold. Share resources and posts with them about how to do things differently.

14. Share about the NonDē Film Movement far and wide. A better world is inevitable if we make it so.

15. Be kind. Be a good person. Be collaborative and not competitive. Lend a hand.

Making films during unstable times doesn’t mean ignoring reality. It means engaging with it, directly or indirectly. It may mean scaling your ambition to protect your mental health, or writing something smaller, more intimate, more contained. It may mean making a comedy, because comedy during dark times offers an escape. Horror during hard times isn’t an indulgence, it’s catharsis, and a documentary during these trying times is testimony.

You don’t have to make a political film to be responding to the moment. Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is tell a deeply human story in an era trying to flatten humanity.

If you’ve embraced the NonDē mindset, if you’ve chosen not to wait for permission, then you don’t have to pause every time the larger system wobbles. You own your work. You control your distribution. You build your audience directly.

Stressful eras expose fragile systems. They also reveal sustainable ones.

-

Punk Rock Producing

Make Movies While the World Is Burning

Currently, the world feels unstable. It feels like every second of every day is filled with more bad news than anyone should be able to handle. Sometimes the weight of it is so heavy that I don’t want to get out of bed, but if punk rock has taught me anything, it’s that this is the exact time I should be making art…

Read more

3 months ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Donny Broussard

Let us know what we missed, please. And share your thoughts.

Leave a comment

Back in December, we launched this newsletter with a round-up of initial thoughts on what we were all thinking about the Netflix takeover of Warners. And yeah, well, that didn’t happen now did it? No use crying over spilled ink!

Well, now we are baaaaack… with an even more worrisome scenario…

Let’s jump in…

Our Current Reality

In a shocking move this week, Netflix declined to raise its bid against Paramount for control of Warner Bros. After months of corporate tug-of-war, Paramount and David Ellison have taken a giant step towards controlling Warner Bros’ linear television assets, including CNN, its streaming service HBO Max, and its film studio, which just had a blockbuster year. Without question, this deal will lead to mass layoffs, fewer shops to sell work to in Hollywood, and leverage massive debt against Paramount: so why is Paramount and Trump-World so desperate for it, and why did Netflix get cold feet? Today on the show, Matt and David dig into the deal, its questionable legality, and how antitrust objections may play out from both federal and state attorneys general. -

Organized Money

Emergency Pod: The Paramount Takeover

Welcome to the podcast Organized Money. You can listen to today’s episode on Apple on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts…

Read more

3 months ago · 23 likes · David Dayen and Matt Stoller

On Thursday, February 26, 2026, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos walked into the White House for a meeting about his company’s $83 billion bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets. He walked out with nothing.

How the Bidding Was Rigged

The mechanism matters. Pay attention to how this actually happened.

In September 2025, David Ellison showed up at WBD CEO David Zaslav’s home with an unsolicited offer. Nineteen dollars a share. Rejected. He raised it. Rejected again. He reportedly offered Zaslav a personal compensation package worth “several hundred million dollars.” Zaslav told his board it was “inappropriate to discuss.”

In December 2025, Netflix announced its $83 billion deal for WBD’s studio and streaming assets. Days later, Paramount launched a hostile takeover bid for the entire company at $108 billion.

Then the DOJ got involved. On January 22, 2026, the Department of Justice opened an antitrust review of the Netflix deal. Both companies received a formal “second request” for information, pausing the statutory waiting period. The probe cited potential violations of Section 7 of the Clayton Act and Section 2 of the Sherman Act, investigating whether Netflix’s acquisition would “substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly.”

On February 12, the DOJ fired its own antitrust chief.

Gail Slater, confirmed with bipartisan support, Trump’s own pick, spent 11 months on the job overseeing the review. CBS News reported she was ousted by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche after she “lost their trust.” Her replacement, acting chief Omeed Assefi, immediately escalated the antitrust investigation into Netflix. Not Paramount. Netflix.

The DOJ sent civil investigative demands to filmmakers and producers across Hollywood, asking whether Netflix’s deal would create a monopoly. The deadline for responses? March 23. Three days after the scheduled shareholder vote on the Netflix deal.

Meanwhile, Paramount’s regulatory waiting period expired without challenge. No second request. No antitrust probe. No civil investigative demands. Their chief legal officer, Makan Delrahim, ran the DOJ Antitrust Division during Trump’s first term. He knows the filing timelines. He knows the people.

Senator Warren called Slater’s removal “corruption.” She said,

“a small army of MAGA-aligned lawyers and lobbyists have been trying to sell off merger approvals to the highest bidder.”

Then Trump demanded Netflix fire board member Susan Rice, a former Obama administration official, or “pay the consequences.”

Then Sarandos went to the White House. Then Netflix walked away.

Connect this to the pattern from my prior essay on the Quiet Capture of American Information. Trump sued Paramount over 60 Minutes. Threatened network licenses. Pressured ABC into a settlement. Paramount paid $16 million to settle a baseless lawsuit with the president to get FCC approval for its Skydance merger. This is the same playbook, just running in both directions. Punish enemies. Reward allies.

-

The Pattern

This is not new behavior. This is the standard playbook of consolidation economics — executed the same way for decades.

When Disney acquired Fox in 2019, up to 4,000 people lost their jobs. When Discovery merged with WarnerMedia in 2022, David Zaslav eliminated thousands of positions, canceled completed projects, and pulled content from Max — all in the name of “efficiency.” Paramount itself has now conducted multiple rounds of layoffs since 2024, reducing its U.S. headcount from 24,500 employees three years ago to 17,600 today.

The pattern: companies announce they have no money for people. Then they find unlimited money for deals.

-

TvDecoded

Paramount Said No Money for Employees — Then Found $2.8B for Netflix

TvDecoded is written by Tracey Baker-Simmons, p.g.a. — a 25-year TV producer decoding the entertainment industry's deal structures so creators can negotiate from leverage, not need…

Read more

3 months ago · Tracey Baker-Simmons

Long-time anti-trust advocate, and someone we can trust to try to dig out every nuance in a necessary manner, our spells it out very clearly. #MustRead

From a competition standpoint, either owner is bad for Hollywood, by which I mean a vibrant industry that shares profits with talent, customers and shareholders. No matter who won this deal, it would be bad from that standpoint.

So yes, lest there be any confusion, I oppose it! (As I did Netflix buying Warner Bros.) -

The Entertainment Strategy Guy

Why I Hate Paramount Buying WBD

(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry…

Read more

3 months ago · Entertainment Strategy Guy

It’s Far from “Over”

Anthony Kaufman’s Substack

What Isn't Being Said about the Paramount-WBD Merger

There’s one thing the media isn’t telling you about the proposed merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery: What you can do to stop it…

Read more

3 months ago · 4 likes · Anthony Kaufman

Though Paramount is buying a direct rival in a concentrated industry, which seems to violate the Clayton Act, no one expects the Trump administration to challenge it, because the company is owned by close Republican friends of the President.

But then, something interesting happened. As I’ve been saying, there are other enforcers who have jurisdiction here, most notably state officials. And one of them, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, announced the merger is “not a done deal” and that he has an open investigation…other state attorneys general are likely to join Bonta in this investigation. - Matt Stoller

BIG by Matt Stoller

BOOM: California Enforcer Says the Paramount-Warner Merger Is "Not a Done Deal"

Last night, the news broke that Paramount beat Netflix in a bidding war for Warner, which is one of the most important moments in Hollywood history. This win is something of a turnaround. In early December, Warner agreed to be acquired by Netflix, with a significant $2.8 billion fee to the streaming giant should the deal fall apart. But over the past we…

Read more

3 months ago · 243 likes · 17 comments · Matt Stoller

“Similar to how sound forced an upheaval in Hollywood and brought the end of the silent era, so will this Paramount-Warner Bros merger wreck the current motion picture industry as we know it,” one tentpole screenwriter-producer tells Deadline.

“This is the most anticompetitive merger that violates the fundamental principles of the Sherman Antitrust Act,” a notable rival studio insider said. “It’s purely a horizontal combination in an industry that’s already consolidated. The seventh and eighth biggest airlines, JetBlue and Spirit, weren’t allowed to merge, and now the No. 2 and No. 5 studio are being allowed. It’s a f*cking joke.”

- Anthony D’Alessandro, Deadline

And this is where the Future Film Coalition, FilmStack and the NonDē Movement all enter the story…

Some of us who are involved in building out this new NonDē ecosystem are also helping with Future Film Coalition’s campaign to “Block The Merger.”

BLOCK THE MERGER!!!!

They are trying to take away everything you ever loved. Seriously. They are burning it down right in front of you. And you can stop it. Sure, they designed the cinema ecosystem for those that actually participate. Yes, it is an industry where the rich get richer and fewer and fewer, the poor get poorer and multiply by the dozens, and the middle just get wiped off the earth. Yes, we know we need an entirely separate NON-DEPENDENT cinema ecosystem. And some of us want little to do with THEM and anyways we will greenlight ourselves and take full responsibility for building our audience, as well as marketing and distribution our work.

Nonetheless hopefully we also recognize that both great art and true democracy depends on having power shared as widely as possible, and to that end it is all of our responsibility to make sure our leading media and entertainment entities don’t consolidate further.

Sure, there’s much more to the picture, not the least of which is how both shareholder capitalism and private equity’s “must-go-up” obsession destroys most of the attributes of cinema, but we can save them for a separate lecture post.

For now, it is all of our responsibility to tell our story. Trust me: you have one. We have all been harmed by the media consolidation that has already happened, and we will be hurt by the further steps that could well come. The Future Film Coalition has been a keep part of launching the https://blockthemerger.com/ campaign. Check it out and share, sailor, share! You know how to tell a good story, don’t you, chum?

- Ted Hope

Future Film Coalition

Take action to block the WBD merger

As Sundance gets underway, the Future Film Coalition is arriving with urgency, momentum, and a clear message: media consolidation is no longer an abstract policy issue. It’s shaping who gets seen, who gets paid, and which stories reach the public…

Read more

4 months ago · 12 likes

Thursday morning, I moderated a panel at the bustling Impact Lounge featuring three representatives of the Future Film Coalition: Executive director and board members and Brian Newman.

has taken on the role of advocating for the larger interests of the independent film community. Indie film has desperately needed someone in this role. As with many communities that define themselves on the margins of a larger industry, indie discourse tends to ignore or shrug at the larger issues roiling its fortunes and focus on fighting with itself.

There has been a “Render unto Caesar” attitude towards the big issues of the entertainment business, which has been aggravated by the fact, as Brian Newman explained, that for the past decade or so, many in the indie world have seen the studios as their saviors — particularly when the streamers were snatching up bucketfuls of Sundance films. Never mind that many of those acquisitions disappeared into the maw of the giant services with little to no promotion, never to be heard from again. As the traditional Hollywood indie sector crumbled and retreated, they grabbed at the tenuous lifeline thrown out by the streamers as though it was that or drown.

The Future Film Coalition, my panelists explained, aims to turn this desperate dependency around, and to that end, they have launched a new initiative that goes right at the heart of everything wrong with the larger industry today.

-

The Ankler

Sundance Day 1: Indie Film Organizes to Stop the Merger Era

To celebrate the final Sundance Film Festival in Park City, I’ll be sending daily dispatches from the snow-covered mountains now through Sunday. Yesterday, I laid out the stakes for this year’s fest. Reach out to me if you’re on the ground: richard@theankler.com…

Read more

4 months ago · 28 likes · Richard Rushfield

Let’s be honest, this was just the corrupt cherry on top of an already dying (dead) system.

Better Times Ahead

How Has Enshittification and Planned Obsolescence Impacted Hollywood & The Way People Consume Media? And why is it good for indie film?

If you think about the way people are being pushed to and trained to consume media right now, it’s in short bursts (not this article however, as I’m hoping you’ll read it and be pushed to think about things in new ways =).

People barely read articles beyond headlines.

People are getting sucked into vertical dramas, (which are in my opinion, a race to the bottom and not sustainable, they are designed to make a few people very rich, while putting the squeeze on everyone else - see my post about verticals here.)

Trust in the media is at an all-time low of 28% in the USA.

Newspapers are trying to turn their reporters into content creators.

The Attention Economy is king.

Things are designed to be scarfed down as quickly as possible so people can move on to the next thing.

But in my opinion, people are kind of tired of it.

This is why we’re seeing a rise in independent HUMAN driven media and people looking for vintage, tangible things (aka digital cameras and magazines) as part of their experiences…

In short, our media consumption habits are coming full circle. And I firmly believe that the more watered down, digestible and safe the content is from the dominating streamers, the more people will begin to look elsewhere.

This is a good thing for indie film.

- Kelli McNeil-Yellen for KLA Media Group

Marketing & PR for Indie Films from KLA Media Group

Let's Talk About... The Enshitification of Hollywood & The Planned Obsolescence of Streamers: Why This is a Good Thing for Indie Film

My question is this for all of us wrestling with what to do in the current state of indie film: what secondary market and supply chain can we develop that will fill the growing gap that is created by the enshittification of Hollywood and the planned obsolescence of streamers…

Read more

8 months ago · 19 likes · 1 comment · KLA Media Group

When you look at how our system now can only make art as a fluke, when most of what is made is boring or damn close to it, how little fun there is anymore, when you look at how much we have allowed to go wrong for so long, when you look at how we destroyed the 200 doors we once had to knock on for each project, the 200 plus private equity players that have all now skipped town, the back end success-based bonuses that they removed forever, and all the data we generate but are never ever going to be privy to… when you look at that AND you look at the tremendous greed the entertainment industry’s CEOs sucked from the field while letting America’s once second-greatest export get pushed out the door and over seas, you have to also realize that it is no accident that this is the way it is. This is what they want. This is what they built. This is THEIR dream factory. They wanted this ugly lopsidedness all along. It was never going to get any better. And you are either on their bus or a different one.

(…)

It has never been easier to make a movie, release a movie, or market a movie — particularly if you don’t require large sums of money. We can take big risks. We are not short on big bold beautiful ideas. New things. New ways. Courage. And we can have fun.

- Ted Hope

Hope For Film

Don't Worry... The Great Collapse of our Industrial Entertainment Ecosystem isn't coming; it ALREADY happened. Although it may not be deaddead, it is soulless -- that's for sure. BETTER TIMES AHEAD!

I read Chuck Klosterman’s The Nineties when it came out. I am now reading W. David Marx’s Blank Space: A Cultural History of the 21st Century. Damn, we sure did go down the wrong path and ruin a good thing or five. Books like these serve as some-what pleasant reminders of all that I lived and worked through th…

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5 months ago · 39 likes · 11 comments · Ted Hope

In reporting about the potential sale of WBD, Richard Brody recently recounted in The New Yorker a brief history of movie studio sales. It’s a little comforting to be reminded that, in a sense, the potential merger is nothing new:

The proposed merger is only the latest of many takeovers, ranging from propitious to preposterous, that have marked the film business for more than half a century, with movie studios traded from hand to hand like baseball cards.

He points out that it’s independent filmmakers who are often the ones to lead the film world out of dark times. He says:

The point is, simply, that crises yield solutions from players who are standing outside the crosswinds—whether streaming services or smaller production companies that don’t face the same financial pressures as major studios, independent filmmakers, and the micro-institutions that foster them.

It’s no small responsibility to come up with “solutions” for what’s being faced, and independent filmmakers have our own set of (related) crises these days. In a 2024 profile of director Todd Solondz, the writer Elena Saavedra Buckley succinctly described the challenges faced in this realm:

That independent filmmaking has been hollowing out for decades, thanks to studio conglomeration, streaming platforms, and risk-averse financing, is no surprise…

This dynamic—in which markets lowball ambitious movies, and streaming platforms ply audiences with algorithmic chaff—leaves little room for both enthusiasm and good-faith challenges.

-

Fred Koschmann

Why Make Movies in the Age of the Internet

On Thursday, Netflix announced that it’s pulling out of a potential buyout of one of the last remaining legacy studios, Warner Brothers Discovery. This might have been a relief if Paramount Skydance wasn’t salivating to pick up where Netflix left off…

Read more

3 months ago · 21 likes · 7 comments · In Times of Massive Flux

So, what did we miss? Let us know.

Leave a comment

And join us again tomorrow for a significant dose of hope that has arrived in knick of time. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!

Subscribe now

Hello early readers of FilmStack Deep Dive.

Welcome! Deep Dive aims to live up to its name. Each issue, we will go deep into a single topic of interest to the FilmStack community. We hope to become your first stop when you want an overview. Be you a weathered veteran or a blushing newbie, we are here for you, taking the temperature of what we are thinking when we talk about this, or write about that.

Thanks for joining and please consider becoming a subscriber today. We hope to publish once a week eventually, but still have a ways to go before we hit that stretch goal.

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There must be something in the water here on FilmStack…

Many people have adopted the concept and ideology behind NonDē to such a degree that they’re flat-out identifying themselves as such in their bios:

Thank you! We are making this movement real. And together we are going to make this permanent.

Let’s examine it a bit closer, okay?

What’s up with the name?

Hope For Film

Why do we need to call it “NonDē”?

Credit Scott Macaulay with prompting this mini-post. He asked why. Chat GPT punked him with some lies about Mark & Jay Duplass. You readers know the true origins and meaning of NonDē…

Read more

10 months ago · 30 likes · 28 comments · Ted Hope

Why is it spelled that way (and how do you pronounce it)?

(TH)

What is NonDē anyway?

And why are we all so obsessed?

Before we get into it, let’s briefly talk about the 1969 French classic, Army of Shadows, which takes place during the French Resistance in WWII and is about a small group of resistance fighters on the move in occupied France.

And what does this have to do with NonDē?

While this group of revolutionaries are moving separately, they are bound together by the philosophy of one Luc Jardin. One of the revolutionaries even keeps the writings of Mr. Jardin as his only source of comfort while in exile. Now NonDē differs slightly from the French Resistance because its philosophy, language, ethos, and belief system is being built by a group of people, not just one, but if we had to name our “Luc Jardin” that title would undoubtedly go to veteran indie film producer turned writer and one of the leading voices of NonDē (and the one who named it)… .

(another one of those self-proclaimed NonDē filmmakers as previously shown) also likens what is being built right now with NonDē to the equivalent of a “political movement.”

So much so that she got over a hundred filmmakers to “organize” into a full-blown movement to prove this new ecosystem will work:

Let's Go Again

50 Films: Let's Organize for the 2026 NonDē Film Movement

We are waiting for something…

Read more

8 months ago · 89 likes · 156 comments · Courtney Romano

NonDē is a reaction of an independent class of artists who see the false promises of a system rigged to work in favor of the few.

It’s happening because it’s becoming impossible for artists to stay artists.

(…)

So what do NonDē Filmmakers do?

We take a page out of Corbin Trent’s book.

Recently, he wrote a piece called A Polite Society That Wasn’t and in it, he argued for would-be politicians to come together around

“a binding pledge and governing strategy built around these principles, with the polling data that proves it’s what voters across the spectrum actually want. It’s designed for candidates willing to commit in writing, organize as a bloc, and challenge the failed status quo in primaries if necessary.”

- Courtney Romano

“NonDē cinema is non-dependent on the current Hollywood ecosystem, and instead asserts the creative, financial, distribution and all forms of cultural control as the intentional responsibility of the individual team. Collectively, the workers in the NonDē movement leverage collaboration over competition, the sharing of institutional knowledge, and mutual support systems to help amplify both the individual films and a bigger movement that prioritizes the sustainability of the art, artist, audience, and cinema ecosystem.”

— & (here)

On Substack, through his “Hope For Film” newsletter, Hope has been articulating NonDē as more than a rebrand: a practical reset. It’s less permission-seeking, less dependency on legacy greenlights, more creator-led sustainability, and a culture that rewards originality and long-term audience trust.

(Whether you interpret the “Dē” as “derivative,” “dependent,” or both, the thrust is consistent: stop building work that only survives inside someone else’s machine.)

-Elliot Grove, The Seven Ted Hope Messages (from Good Machine to NonDē)

Film Future Lab

Is NonDē “Human-centered Indie Filmmaking”?

This post is a little deviation on my film-making agenda posts but I just needed to get this idea out of my head: The more I think and read about the NonDē movement, the more similarities I see with the Design Thinking movement. I’ll explain…

Read more

6 months ago · 9 likes · 5 comments · ZTennyson

To break it down even further.

In its current form, NonDē is:

• A movement gaining momentum through the ND50 initiative led by Courtney Romano.

• An ecosystem that has been slowly spelled out by Ted Hope for the past three years and is now actively being built and championed by the members of the film community here on Substack and through partnerships with those off of the platform such as Keith Ochwat at Show & Tell.

• Again, an ideology, that believes in the necessary centering of the art, the artist, and the audience that the becomes the foundation for building the future of cinema.

• And to many, it is a declaration to not wait for permission but to make movies now with micro-budgets and a scrappy, punk rock attitude.

In thinking about all of the ways NonDē lives in the world today - or at the very least on this platform - for me, what NonDē is at its core and what I think all of these iterations of it are more or less “getting at” is:

More specifically, it is not a call to alarm people or to make them feel powerless or hopeless, but quite the opposite - it is a call to equip us with the education, information, resources, and community necessary to figure out for ourselves how to be a filmmaker right now. And its collective power and collaborative nature gives us all a fighting chance for a future in this seemingly “dying industry.”

- at

(TL)

FAQ about NonDē

You can read my answers here:

Hope For Film

What are the most FAQs about NonDē?

What are the most FAQ about NonDē…

Read more

4 months ago · 8 likes · 4 comments · Ted Hope

(TH)

What does NonDē value? What are NonDē’s values?

has started a list of essential NonDē values

Let's Go Again

You're invited to the table

If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound…

Read more

4 months ago · 15 likes · 6 comments · Courtney Romano

Let’s add to it, yeah?

(TH)

How does NonDē differ from FilmStack?

And while NonDē’s ethos is centered around non-dependency, decentralization, and breaking down the barriers of the past, the FilmStack community is all about well - creating community!

And almost exactly a month later, FilmStack did just that!

To clear it up even further, created a PDF laying out the differences and the milestones of each in her “Welcome to Filmstack 2025 Annual Report.”

Luz Films

"Welcome to FilmStack" Annual Report and a Christmas Short For You.

Alright I’m going to be quick because it’s the holidays and I’ve got some cooking to do…

Read more

5 months ago · 97 likes · 34 comments · Taylor Lewis

Why embrace NonDē?

The Ankler

Indie Film is Broken. Ted Hope Has a New Idea: ‘NonDē’

Read more

4 months ago · 55 likes · 2 comments · Richard Rushfield

Our authored cinema will not survive globally -- beyond the domain of a few established masters -- unless we all recognize the system we are in and the system that is in us. Both sides can change: us and them. We can all move things forward, but it takes us all thinking holistically. We have to think through how our individual efforts affect others as well as the system as a whole. And we have to think through how the whole system affects others individually too. Everything is connected and to each action there is an equal and opposite reaction, somewhere…

- Ted Hope, Stop Financing Movies (Unless You Finance Marketing & Operational Improvements Too)!

The electric toothbrush was invented for people the system failed.

The electric toothbrush asked:

“How do we get clean teeth without requiring perfect hands?”

NonDē asks:

“How do we make meaningful films without requiring perfect conditions?”

Not tougher filmmakers.
Not longer hours.
Not more suffering.

Better systems.

That’s not rebellion.
That’s care — designed at scale.

-Elliot Grove

The French New Wave wasn’t born in studios — it came out of cafés, basements, and borrowed cameras. A generation of critics, dreamers, and cinephiles who stopped writing about film and started making it.

They didn’t wait for permission or financing or perfect conditions. They took what they had — the streets of Paris, their friends, their obsessions — and turned it into cinema that felt alive. They made films that breathed, stumbled, improvised, and whispered their truth through the noise.

(…)

Ted Hope’s ideas around a Non-Dē ecosystem, to me, isn’t particularly a trend or manifesto; it’s more of a reality check. Non-Dē says stop waiting for the system to greenlight you. Greenlight yourself.

- , The Future of Film belongs to the Amateurs

FILMMAKER IN THE LOOP

The Future of Film belongs to the Amateurs

As an accomplished narrative developer and guerrilla filmmaker, one question keeps circling in my mind — simple, but impossible to shake…

Read more

7 months ago · 12 likes · 1 comment · Sasha Santiago

(TL)

The History of NonDē

YouTube:

Spotify:

Pocketcast: https://pca.st/5jp8wls1

Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/541ba9e5-1c4b-4aea-8cfe-f12f8e14cd8d/episodes/17622f49-ff13-479a-9d83-3d5a5118ebb3/have-you-seen-my-film-a-kinema-podcast-nond%C4%93-a-history-lesson-with-ted-hope-hope-for-film

Was Good Machine the roots for today’s NonDē orchard?

I love that sees it as so. Good Machine was my first company. We got our start in micro-budget, and remained forever budget agnostic. We were willing to do it all ourselves and handled both distribution and sales. Elliot draws a line form Good Machine to Dogma 95, and a fun fact is that Good Machine handle the international sales on a handful of the D95 for Zentropa (Lars Von Trier’s production company).

A new manifesto for a new generation —
less aesthetic than Dogme, but more structural.

(TH)

What’s the future of NonDē?

What is NonDē doing right now?

The answer to that is to follow and subscribe to , the founder of NonDē50. Not only is she blazing the trail, her head is on straight and she sees it all clearly:

Let's Go Again

The NonDē movement grows

As the NonDē film movement grows, the “takes” are only gonna get hotter…

Read more

5 months ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Courtney Romano

Be sure to subscribe to FilmStack Daily Digest for updates on all things NonDē:

FilmStack Daily Digest

A collection of highlights from (and for) the FilmStack community, curated on a rotating basis from the community.

By Ted Hope

Looking for further insight on who speaks NonDē?

Well from the HFF Taxonomy of FilmStack, the NonDē Evangelists are: Donny Broussard, Elliot Grove, Ted Hope, Taylor Lewis, Courtney Romano, Sasha Santiago

But don’t you think it is time for you to add your name to that list? I do. LFG!

Leave a comment

Want to learn more NonDē?

SlamDancē NonDē Day of Dangerous Ideas

https://slamdance.com/26-market-monday/

It sold out right away!

But SlamDancē says if people are there, there will be rolling availabity. So show up!

This is how the revolution continues…

BONUS!

Get a taste of NonDē’s forward-thinking, can-do, positive, problem-solving ways, with FilmStack Daily’s survey of “Dangerous Ideas” towards our broken cinema ecosystem with our 4-day survey across the FilmStack community:

FilmStack Daily Digest

NonDē "Dangerous Idea" videos #1-4

JIC you haven’t been following along, Slamdance invited me (Ted) to curate their “Market Monday” around NonDē, the film movement that FilmStack helped birth…

Read more

3 months ago · 23 likes · 3 comments · Amanda Sweikow, Ted Hope, Taylor Lewis, Sophie, Evan Shapiro, Charlotte Simmons, and Anthony Kaufman

FilmStack Daily Digest

NonDē "Dangerous Idea" videos #5-8

Read more

3 months ago · Ted Hope, Amanda Sweikow, Taylor Lewis, Jen Topping, Elizabeth Joyce, and Kathleen Lingo

More to come!

In this special advance first edition of FilmStack Deep Dive, we are pulling from both inside and outside the ‘stack and trying to get you a complete collection on the topic, and with this — our first post —comes significant urgency, it being on the possible Netflix/Warners Consolidation.

Before we jump in, let me be clear, it was not my intent to publish Deep Dive yet. We are building up a large supply of posts and didn’t want to release anything until we could insure you a regular cadence of release. FilmStack Deep Dive will be is collecting some of the great cinema-related writing and views from the ‘stack and elsewhere, and then publishing them as links with additional context. It is similar to what we are doing over at FilmStack Daily Digest, but here each post will only be on a single theme or topic. Although we are not launching for a few months, this pressing and unfolding story provided an opportunity to give you a taste of what we plan to offer. And perhaps one where you will also make some suggestions

This newsletter, like FilmStack Daily Digest, will be used 100% to raise funds for an Emergency Relief Filmmaker Crisis Fund. You can get the ball rolling and pledge a paid subscription today. You can also subscribe for free. We are half way to our goal of 100 subscribers BEFORE we “officially” launch.

Subscribe now

This advance publication of this issue is a necessity due to the severe disaster to our cinema ecosystem that the possible Netflix Warners Consolidation could create.

A fitting theme song for this issue (but please suggest better!)

The Stakes

Many people out there may not think the possible consolidation is a big deal because it may just feel like a “Hollywood issue”. But Jane Fonda’s right, in that the stakes are as high as they get: democracy is at risk. She penned this before Warner’s wedding with Netfilx was announced. Regardless of the suitor, she spells out what it means for the biz:

Consolidation at this scale would be catastrophic for an industry built on free expression, for the creative workers who power it, and for consumers who depend on a free, independent media ecosystem to understand the world. It will mean fewer jobs, fewer opportunities to sell work, fewer creative risks, fewer news sources and far less diversity in the stories Americans get to hear.

But then she makes clear that this is the tip of an iceberg. The main thing is “how this administration has used anticipated mergers as tools of political pressure and censorship.” They are crushing the First Amendment — and that is not a partisan issue. Everyone everywhere should object , for the First Amendment is the bedrock of America and Democracy. They are using their regulatory power to silence dissent in all forms, and dissent is how America was formed and how we will flourish. Our ability to do so freely must be preserved.

The Ankler.

Jane Fonda Op-Ed: The WBD Deal Puts Hollywood, and Democracy, at Risk

Jane Fonda is a two-time Oscar-winning actress, producer and activist. She earlier appeared on The Rushfield Lunch to announce the relaunch of th…

Read more

6 months ago · 188 likes · 9 comments · Jane Fonda

penned this NYTimes OpEd once the groom was announced. He calls it as he sees it and I agree with him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/opinion/netflix-warner-bros-hollywood.html

Afterall, this has been the plan of Zaslov and others for a while now. Call it the “looting the store” strategy. They want to “extract value”. This is what happens when everything is driven by stock price and everything “must go up”.

And of course it is going to end here, with Warners, is it?

Why are Netflix and Warners doing this?

Greed. Arrogance. Disrespect. You know: the usual.

For Netflix, maybe it is just to get further ahead of the competition. Netflix will still win even if the people and the government work together and stop this illegal consolidation. “What? Huh?: you say. Netflix could be doing this with expectation that it won’t even go through. Netflix could be doing this to just set a regulatory merger investigation. During such an investigation, business at Warners slows way the ef down. Netflix is essentially freezing their competitor and degrading Warner’s aspects. Translate that further? No one is going to sell anything to Warners for sometime. When the merger is stopped, Netflix is further ahead of their main competition than they even were before.

And if the deal does go through — not only will it further prove that our country is an entirely corrupt state run by business for business — Netflix wins all the more. For instance, the sees the deal as quite compelling for Netflix. How could it not be? It is the #1 GSP merging with the #2 (some would say Amazon is the #2, but they really don’t prioritize the entertainment business the way these two do).

The Entertainment Strategy Guy

Why I LOVE Netflix Buying Warner Bros.

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article…

Read more

6 months ago · Entertainment Strategy Guy

And for Warners, well Zas will continue his practice of looting the store and making a pretty penny. This is vulture capitalism at work.

The Ankler.

The Day of the Vulture is Here

There are so many things that don’t make sense these days in Hollywood — choices being made on the field that are confounding if you happen to care about the future of this game, this team, this sport…

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6 months ago · 28 likes · 4 comments · Richard Rushfield

I think nailed it though. Sarandos wants Warners to train his AI.

You MUST read her whole piece. She’s right on (again).

That Final Scene

dear ted sarandos

I got your email late last week. Well, Netflix’s email, the chipper corporate announcement about acquiring Warner Bros, addressed to me like we’re old friends catching up. “Hi Sofia,” it opened, before rattling off franchises like a grocery list: Harry Potter, Friends, Casablanca, Game of Thrones…

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6 months ago · 12 likes · 7 comments · Sophie

How did Netflix get in a position to do this?

Notes from the Studio

Netflix’s Journey From Red Envelopes To Owning Hollywood

In 1998, Netflix was mailing out plastic discs in little red envelopes. In 2025, Netflix is merging with Warner Bros Discovery, taking control of a century of studio history, HBO, and some of the most valuable IP on the planet…

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6 months ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Ellis J. Sutton

But like anything else, conquering requires not just your good smarts and ways, but others’ dumbass decisions too!

Hope For Film

They Won’t Get Fooled Again! Or Will They?

We are now witnessing the fourth time that the tech companies have hoodwinked the traditional media companies. Will they ever learn…

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3 years ago · 32 likes · 8 comments · Ted Hope

What if it was Paramount?

has an excellent breakdown of the what the different worlds would be if one vs the other won.

Reunion’s Substack

WB deal = NY vs. LA

Paramount is better for movies…Netflix is better for industry…

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6 months ago · 2 likes · 1 comment · Reunion

I particularly liked this part:

But if I had to choose:

Of course, maybe in this battle we are missing out on a real alternative…

Dan points out another of his wise posts about this deal, that no matter who wins the battle, they likely won’t know how to use the spoils in the manner that the people truly want.

What will consolidation do to movie theaters?

Netflix does not believe in theatrical exhibition. Sarandos has been making that clear again.

“Folks grew up thinking, ‘I want to make movies on a gigantic screen and have strangers watch them [and to have them] play in the theater for two months and people cry and sold-out shows … It’s an outdated concept.”

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/netflix-ceo-ted-sarandos-movie-theaters-outdated-1236376565/

Meanwhile, Warners delivered a ton of wide-ranging theatrical hits this year from Sinners to One Battle After Another to The Minecraft Movie to Weapons. Would any of those been more fun to see at home? I don’t think so.

Exhibitors in America did not waste any time speaking up about what a disaster the consolidation would be for their business:

Cinema United used to be called the National Association Of Theater Owners (NATO).

https://cinemaunited.org/2025/12/05/cinema-united-opposes-proposed-acquisition-of-legendary-hollywood-studio-warner-bros/

In Europe the theater owners have also made their position clear:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/unic-oppose-netflix-warners-acquisition-1236443173/

The UNIC represents exhibitors across 39 territories in Europe with a reach of 43,500 screens.

What do American unions think about this?

They hate it. Pretty uniformly. And rightly so.

https://www.wga.org/news-events/news/press/2025/wga-statement-on-the-acquisition-of-warner-bros-discovery-by-netflix

https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-statement-regarding-proposed-netflixwarner-bros-transaction

https://www.dga.org/News/PressReleases/2025/251205_Statement_On_WBD-Netflix

https://deadline.com/2025/12/hollywood-teamsters-react-netflix-wb-merger-urge-rejection-1236637806/

I have to say though, I think the entertainment unions are missing out on truly shaping the conversation. It is not just about jobs.

• Fair wages are a democracy issue.

• Media consolidation is a free speech issue.

• Unfair competition threatens America and our values.

The unions need to put these issues front and center. Our freedom and well being is at stake.

How will we stop it?

That question was the focus when did a video chat with Alvaro Bedoya and . When you hear them discuss the bribes donations Amazon gave to the Trump regime to make legal issues go away demonstrates clearly how this administration is using its regulatory power to further its aims. As if you’ve might have missed it.

“It’s a merger to monopoly”, “It is obviously illegal”.

But really, who can stop it? Well, individuals can bring suit, but that is unlikely. And state Attorney Generals can act. As can foreign countries, as these are all global companies. And of course we still have congress, and they still have some power.

But it does come down to Hollywood speaking up. We can make commercially viable art, but to do that now we need financial syndication (fin-syn) for the global streaming platform era if we are to be compensated fairly for it. Our industry doesn’t work when we can’t make money for making hits of any level and that has to be fixed. Not only do we no longer have a market for any of that, if there was a merger like this, it would be as Roy wrote: death. Consolidation is not inevitable. Hopefully, this is finally the wake up call for all of Hollywood to speak up and push us to back into an era of fair competition.

The Ankler.

‘It Can Be Stopped’: Fighting Back Against the ‘Bad Faith’ Netflix-Warner Bros. Deal

Back in September, when it seemed likely that Paramount Skydance would acquire Warner Bros., a potential extinction-level event for an industry already reeling, I brought together some of today’s sharpest legal and policy minds — including former FTC chair Lina Khan, former FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya and monopoly expert Matt Stoller, writer of the…

Listen now

6 months ago · 73 likes · 3 comments · Richard Rushfield, Alvaro Bedoya, and Matt Stoller

What can YOU do?

We should not be speaking of it as a done deal — no matter how likely it may now seem. Completion of the deal is one of many possible futures, and we should refer to it ALWAYS as “possible”. And just so if you don’t yet know where I stand, I suggest you insert the word “disastrous” too.

Frankly, talking about it to anyone and everyone is key. Share your opinion. Speak up. This is when we’d like to think our support and advocacy groups would speak up. What’s Sundance’s position? Film Independent’s? The Gotham’s? Tribeca’s? SXSW? It doesn’t seem like anyone of them wants to be a leader any more. Or is it every single one of them have been bought off by their sponsors’ dollars and they don’t have the backbone to speak up. Back in 2006, when we successful sued the MPAA on anti-trust violations, their predecessors stood up with us.

We do need to recognize that this type of overreach is a byproduct of our system. The Number Must Go Up rule is killing us. Wall Street’s dominance over our industry is destroying it.

BIG by Matt Stoller

The Number Go Up Rule: Why America Refuses to Fix Anything

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal dropped a salacious story involving the relationship between Jeff Epstein and Donald Trump, one that is throwing the political world into a tizzy. And for good reason, it speaks to a two tier system of justice. One class in America is composed of billionaires and elites with super-yachts and no accountability, the othe…

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10 months ago · 790 likes · 93 comments · Matt Stoller

May I recommend some reading to help you better assess our current situation?

Yeah, there’s a common theme here. And no matter where you sit, trust me, you need to recognize what you are up against.

I hate to say it though, it is this system that also produces the people that allow all of this to continue. The worst among us are not a glitch in the system, but the result of the design. Trump and his buddy Epstein are made by it. The list goes on and on.

It is one battle after another and our struggle for a more cooperative, compassionate, and supportive system is what defines the time — not all that we must resist.

THEY are going to make promises. Remember whatever they say is likely a lie. When I read ’s excellent article (liked above), I responded:

Hell yeah, and then some! Thank you for this Sophie. There is no question this possible consolidation is illegal -- but as we are living in our corrupt times, that won’t stop it. It might make good business (however you interpret that term) sense for both, but it 100% will make it worse for everything that is great about being alive. The key thing -- which you capture so well -- is whatever that Ted says now: CAN NOT BE TRUSTED. Any plan put forward, any promise given, the first thing we have to remember: THAT IS A LIE.

Fear Not

This — as makes clear in his discussion with (above) — COULD be what we need to get the fin-syn for global streaming platforms conversation going. That would be a win for free enterprise, fair competition, free speech, democracy, consumers, and small business owners. Some big ones too. And did I say artists? NonDē? Entrepreneurs? Yup, all those too!

You need to prepare for the next era of total disintermediation of theatrical distribution. I have been writing about this over at HopeForFilm. It has already started. If you are an exhibitor take it as a sign that you have to collaborate more directly with the filmmakers. If you are a distributor, recognize that you are going to have change what you do and how you do it. If your are a studio, recognize it is your capital and your relationships that are really your primary assets. If you are a support org, recognize the urgency you have before you to train the next gen on how to be ready for these new waters. And if you are a filmmaker, recognize that you must be responsible for building your audience and casting the team that will help you market and release your films.

If you aren’t subscribed to HopeForFilm, perhaps now is when you should fix that situation, for this is what we are addressing over there and have been for over three years now.

Hope For Film

Surprise! The FKATheFilmBiz is not prepared for the current disruption (that will be more tumultuous than streaming was and is NOT AI)

The four and 1/2+ groups blazing our path through the disintermediation of distribution…

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6 months ago · 27 likes · 9 comments · Ted Hope

Hope For Film

Build Your Audience, Own Your Future

I am participating in a panel at Cannes today, SATURDAY, MAY 17 at 11:00 AM (Cannes Time, GMT +2). As I write this, it hasn’t happened yet, but as you read this it already has…

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a year ago · 43 likes · 8 comments · Ted Hope

Hope For Film

Wanted: Entrepreneurs To Become HEROES Of The New Film Movement

I didn’t plan to write a post for today. Tuesday is a day off. But I have been working on something BIG for everyone, and I hope you can give it the attention I think it deserves…

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10 months ago · 56 likes · 14 comments · Ted Hope

Hope For Film

It Is Time For Doc & Indie Filmmakers To Abandon The Global VOD Platforms

I think if you asked most folks who know a little about the FKATheFilmBiz, what the path your little indie should take in distribution, be it a fiction or a doc, they’d say “play some festivals, hope for a sale, and when you don’t get one, put it up on all the digital platforms to sell as a TVOD title”. That’s just “how it’s…

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2 years ago · 55 likes · 17 comments · Ted Hope

Learn more this December

And if you want to learn more about the threats of further media consolidation, the IDA and Future Film Coalition have a teach-in coming up on December 17th:

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