The short and honest answer is that something has to speak to me. Unless there’s a deep relationship with the filmmaker and the material, it’s hard to make a commitment. There is so much talent out there, and I wish we could do it all, but we can’t. And then I also think taste plays a very specific role, and craft plays a very specific role, and then the things that I said earlier, like the emotional core, moral conscience. I think those are the hard things to find in a project. Everybody has stories but I don’t know if I can say, when I read the script, I’m dropping down into the emotional core of it quickly.
We have a limited capacity for first features, because a first feature is the most difficult thing to get made, and we do still have a couple more filmmakers that we believe in really strongly that we’re taking some bets on. But they have all showed exemplary craft. They have had short films that have gone to incredible festivals, they’ve won at Cannes, they’ve played at Sundance, they’ve started to build a track record.
It’s important for me to know that I’m also in the hands of a strong director, with a strong vision, and it’s also important to show financing partners that there’s a track record, there’s somewhere for this film to go.
If people reach out from institutions like my film school, Columbia, or Sundance, Film Independent, then I always make it a point to respond and help as much as I can.
We do want to be those people who are championing filmmakers, and there’s so much talent, there’s so many stories to be told, but we acknowledge that it’s such a difficult industry to get anything made.