Now Playing: Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You

The 11th annual Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You is set to unspool. New York's Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) Department of Film, in association with IFP, and Filmmaker magazine curates the best and unsung cinematic expression from the film festival circuit that have yet to be picked up for theatrical distribution.

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You has become an invaluable resource for cinephiles who seek to take in the newest emerging talent in American filmmaking on the big screen from visual film, video and digital artists to the freshest indie filmmakers.

This film series is dedicated to bringing New York audiences conversations around independent cinema and in-person engagement with filmmakers. The selected films are All This Panic, directed by Jenny Gage; Free in Deed (New York Premiere), directed by Jake Mahaffy; Hotel Dallas, directed by Sherng-Lee Huang and Livia Ungur; The Nine, directed by Katy Grannan; and The Pearl directed by Jessica Dimmock and Christopher LaMarca.

BFNPTNY takes place from December 16th - December 19th at MoMA. For more information on films, screening times, and filmmaker Q&As, visit:  MoMA.

Once upon a filmmaking, there was a time in the not so distant past, where I eagerly awaited Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Film, Sundance Film Festival Audience Winners, Festival de Cannes Official Selections, and the IFC Gotham Independent Film Awards.

This morning, the 2016 Gotham Awards nominees were announced. For many insiders, journalists, filmmakers and Academy voting members, today signals the advent of awards season and the red carpet parade. Each year the list of names, production companies and distributors become more recognizable and achingly familiar, leading to the inquiry: Where is the independence? What is independent film?

While posing the rhetorical threat, I will offer some of this year's roster of nominations: Paramount Pictures, Amazon Studios, Roadside Attractions, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Annette Benning, Natalie Portman and Jeff Bridges. There is nothing particularly independent about said nomenclature and as a producer of independent film, the evolution from indie to Hollywood is to change or evolve the studio system from a closed narrative to an inclusive movie production arena where all stories are told. It is also to emerge from meager budgeted innovative cinema production to fully secured productions capable of being articulated to larger audiences.

With that said, I congratulate the 2016 Gotham Awards nominees, and look forward to not fully knowing any of the winners.

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COME summer, emerging indie filmmakers and roving film festival circuiteurs eagerly await Filmmaker Magazine's highly coveted and completely subjective "25 New Faces of Independent Film" list of up-and-coming independent filmmakers.

Twenty-fifteen's holy scroll includes not only directors, but talent in all areas of filmmaking, including actors, cinematographers, animators, writers and more.  As their art reflects their life and the world around them, this year's "25 New Faces" use their vision, voice and camera to tackle current news and sensitive subjects of our day, from poverty and homelessness, to race and police violence - and, of course, the multi ring circus of politics.

Get familiar and keep an eye on this fresh and exciting crop of cinema professionals.  Chances are you will be hearing from them soon.