The Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA) is the trade association that represents companies that finance, produce and license independent film and television programming worldwide. The association is headquartered in Los Angeles but has a worldwide membership and scope of services and advocacy. The organization has more than 150 member companies in 22 countries. Independent production and distribution companies, sales agents, television companies, studio-affiliated companies and financial institutions, IFTA members create more than 500 independent films and countless hours of TV programming each year, with revenue of $4 billion annually.
IFTA publicly represents the independent film industry on matters such as the threat to a competitive marketplace they see in media consolidation;[1] net neutrality;[2] the elimination of trade barriers; the impact of new technology on our traditional business models; anti-piracy and improvement of copyright protection around the world;[3] and the need to foster broad-based growth of the industry. The freedom for independents to create and distribute movies and television shows has been threatened by a handful of consolidated media companies that control programming and distribution. As the voice and advocate for the independent industry worldwide, IFTA continues to increase public awareness of the major issues facing independents, including media consolidation and net neutrality.
IFTA executives meet regularly with Washington lawmakers advocating on behalf of reasonable and limited regulations to restore balance in the television and cable marketplace. IFTA also endorses the principles of “net neutrality” or open access to the Internet. Net neutrality is currently threatened if broadband providers are able to discriminate in favor of certain content or applications, potentially replicating the closed and vertically integrated structure with traditional programming and distribution platforms. In December 2008, IFTA called on the new Obama Administration to appoint an FCC chairman and commissioners who support principles of openness and diversity in the media with an open letter [4] to his transition team, including Julius Genachowski, who was recently confirmed as the new FCC chairman. IFTA also lobbies against market barriers that impede the independents’ ability to compete fully in national markets around the world, including import and censorship restrictions and weak copyright protection.
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According to IFTA:[5]
An independent film or television program is financed primarily from sources outside the seven major U.S. studios. Independent entertainment programming is made at every budget range, from mainstream commercial to art house, and is seen by the public side-by-side with major studio release. IFTA’s member companies finance, license, and produce this independent programming.
However, some members of the IFTA are subsidiaries of the Big Six movie studios, such as New Line Cinema owned by Time Warner and Focus Features owned by NBC Universal.
Jean Prewitt became IFTA’s President in April 2000[6] and was promoted to Chief Executive Officer in December 2001. Prior to joining IFTA, Prewitt was a senior government official and lobbyist for the film and entertainment industry for nearly ten years. Before her time in Washington DC, she was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of United International Pictures (the international distribution entity formed by then-Universal, Paramount and MGM-UA studios), managing international legal and government affairs. [7]
Jonathan Wolf has been IFTA's Executive Vice President and Managing Director of the American Film Market since 1998. He joined IFTA in 1993 as Senior Vice President of Business Development and established IFTA Collections, which now distributes millions of dollars in royalties to participants each year. Before joining IFTA, Wolf served two years as President & COO of Studio Three Film Corporation, a U.S. theatrical distribution company. [8]
In September 2009, Troma Entertainment President Lloyd Kaufman was re-elected to a second two-year term serving as Chairman of the Independent Film & Television Alliance. Also elected to two-year terms on IFTA's executive committee were Imagination Worldwide's Pierre David, named general vice chairperson, and Summit Entertainment's Brad Kembel, vice chairperson/secretary. The newly elected members of the executive committee joined Roger Corman, Avi Lerner, Albert Lee and Elisabeth Costa de Beauregard Rose, who are all continuing their two-year terms.
Also serving new and continued two-year terms on IFTA's board of directors are Paul Hertzberg, Jay Joyce, Mark Lindsay, Nicole Mackey, Almira Malyshev, Bobby Meyers, Charlotte Mickie, Barbara Mudge, Michael Ryan, Adam Wright, Carl Clifton, Tony Kandah and Edward Noeltner,Steve Bickel, Nicolas Chartier, Kirk D'Amico, Mark Damon, Clay Epstein, Kim Fox, Richard Guardian, Brad Krevoy, Kathy Morgan and Brian O'Shea.[2]
A group of independent producers established the American Film Market ([9]) and the AFM’s parent, the non-profit American Film Marketing Association, in 1980 to expand the independent film business. In 2004, the organization changed its name and expanded its scope to include television with the formation of the Independent Film & Television Alliance.[5]
Collectively, independents produce the largest number of motion picture industry jobs, films and, over the past quarter century, Academy Award-winning movies. IFTA members have produced and distributed such Best Picture Oscar winners as Gandhi (1982); Amadeus (1984); Platoon (1986); The Last Emperor (1987); Driving Miss Daisy (1989); Dances with Wolves (1990); The Silence of the Lambs (1991); Braveheart (1995); The English Patient (1996); Shakespeare in Love (1998); Chicago (2002); The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003); Million Dollar Baby (2004); Crash (2004); The Departed (2006); No Country for Old Men (2007) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008).
Most recently, some of the world’s most prominent films were produced, distributed and financed by IFTA Members: Milk (2008); The Reader (2008); The Wrestler (2008); Doubt (2008); Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008); W (2008); Twilight (2008); Defiance (2008); I've Loved You So Long (2008); Burn After Reading (2008); Coraline (2009); Knowing (2009); and, Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (2009).
IFTA members, as well as the entire independent film industry, benefit from other services outside of the AFM, which has grown into one of the world’s largest film markets. The organization publishes standard form contracts and sets recognized business definitions, while providing business services to many of its members’ entrepreneurial companies. Acting as an arbitration tribunal (IFTA Arbitration), IFTA resolves distribution-related disputes between parties.