woodstockff's blog

Jonathan Sehring

Wedneday, October 11---Jonathan Sehring, the President of IFC Entertainment and a longtime supporter of the independent film movement, will be honored at the Woodstock Film Festival with this year's Trailblazer Award. Sehring will receive the award from Oscar-nominated actor Matt Dillon, the star of IFC Films' FACTOTUM, at a special Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening.

Matt Dillon

Sehring has been a prime mover in the contemporary renaissance of American independent film. Via the Independent Film Channel, a nationwide cable television network that presents original programming and the best in indie films totally uncut and uninterrupted by commercials, and IFC Films, a producer and distributor of quality independent and international features and documentaries, Sehring's independent labels have brought many thrilling films to the screen, both large and small.

Sehring is one of the most well-respected film executives in New York and considered a maverick among his peers for his innovative ways of bringing independent films to a larger audience. With the cable network, production and distribution arms, and now the IFC Film Center, a state-of-the-art three screen complex in lower Manhattan, Sehring is expanding the possibilities for indie films to reach a broader public.

Jonathan Sehring At IFC Film Center

IFC is also one of the leaders in the new strategy of day-and-date openings of films in both theaters and on television. Via the new distribution label IFC FIRST TAKE, selected films are available both theatrically and on demand television, a revolutionary new approach that is counter to the industry's long held tiering system. It remains controversial, but so far has increased the visibility and box office takes of films that may have floundered otherwise.

Since its creation in 1997, IFC Entertainment has been a leader in the independent film world, producing and distributing such groundbreaking films as MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, the Oscar winner BOYS DON'T CRY and international film hits including Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, MONSOON WEDDING and TOUCHING THE VOID.

The company has hit box office gold with the recent films FAHRENHEIT 911, ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW and TRANSAMERICA. Sehring has hmself executive produced more than 20 feature films in the past 10 years, including such well regarded works as BOY'S DON'T CRY, GIRLFIGHT, MEN WITH GUNS, WAKING LIFE, MONSOON WEDDING, PERSONAL VELOCITY and ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW.

Sehring, along with longtime producing partner Caroline Kaplan, won the prestigious Monitor Award in 1999 for their television documentary DIVINE TRASH, a salute to Baltimore film laureate John Waters; and was nominated for an Emmy Award for A DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE (2003), a wide-ranging tribute to ground-breaking independent films of the past 20 years. He is also the shared recipient of the Cable Ace Award for the documentary essay THE TYPEWRITER, THE RIFLE AND THE MOVIE CAMERA, a portrait of cinema maverick Sam Fuller.

“We are thrilled to recognize Jonathan Sehring with the Woodstock Film Festival’s Trailblazer Award", 'Festival Director Meira Blaustein gushed. "He embodies the essence of the Award, which is designed to honor a distinguished industry member who, through his or her pioneering approach, has carved new and uncharted territories in the film world. Independent film has flourished in great part thanks to Jonathan Sehring’s unrelenting will and commitment to the independent creative voice and his innovative approach to the industry.

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