Time to celebrate New York independent producer Killer Films, a beacon of flexible creativity and longevity with almost 150 film credits in a tough business from namesake comedy horror Office Killer by Cindy Sherman in 1997 to Celine Song’s 2025 summer hit Materialists.
Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, who founded and run the company, have curated a selection for Metrograph this weekend and next featuring I’m Not There, Office Killer, One Hour Photo, Far From Heaven, Zola, Happiness, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and a surprise screening. The duo, who will appear at selected showtimes, spoke with Deadline on the films they chose and the indie film landscape then and now.
The selection “was an attempt to sort of like pick films that were meaningful to us but also represented certain milestones for us. There have been so many eras of the way movies that we make got made and some are truly independent, some were with majors, some were first films, some were more sort of mature directors. We also tried to find movies that didn’t show a lot,” said Vachon.
Their first films together before Killer was called Killer were Kids (1995) Stonewall (1995) and I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), which gave them a degree of financial stability and “allowed us to start talking about the future and talking about development, and you know, what kind of movies we wanted to make,” she said. What’s guided them for 30 years remains the critical piece of smart indie filmmaking. “You can decorate it in different ways but, essentially, know who your audience is, try to tell the story the best way you possibly can, and do it for a price.”
“A lot of it is about us listening to the marketplace,” said Koffler. “About really having our heads down and seeing what comes back to us. We take something to market and we say we think this movie should cost $8 million, and sometimes the market comes back and says, guess what, it should cost four. If you want to make it, figure out how to make it for four or don’t make it.”
It does feel tougher now than ever. “Budgets really do feel under the screws in a way that, relative to the economies in the ’90s and the 2000s, it is harder. Everything’s more expensive, and the actual ability to aggregate the money to make the story is so hard, and it’s such a small amount, that I just think it’s affecting the kinds of stories those movies can be,” she said. “They can still be fantastic.”
Creatively, things have also shifted. “There was a kind of freedom in that era of the kinds of stories you could get across that we just sort of took for granted, like, that’s just what independent film is. If you imagine trying to make some of those movies now, it kind of boggles the mind,” said Vachon. “There was also a little bit more room for casting freedom, you know, like something like Happiness getting to put Philip Seymour Hoffman in when he hadn’t really become Philip Seymour Hoffman yet. There was a little bit more room for that kind of innovation.
“But things evolve and change and we’ve stuck around for so long because we evolved and changed, right? There’s been so many disruptions. I mean you wouldn’t believe the earthquake that was not shooting on film anymore. But in some ways that made storytelling easier for a generation of filmmakers who could tell stories on their iPhones or who didn’t have to pay those kinds of costs to make their first stories … So I guess I don’t really like to traffic in, like, Well, it used to be better. Who the f–k cares? That’s not what we’re dealing with now,” she said.
“As viewer viewing habits change, and we see sort of what is working in theaters and how and why, it’s going to give us a roadmap to feel encouraged that people will go to the movie theater under certain circumstances for certain kinds of films. They will watch certain things at home, which isn’t the end of the world.”
Koffler waded into the windows debate, “When a movie is available in the theater for two or three weeks and then it’s streaming, I really do find a lot of people waiting to see it at home. Or just somehow the urgency to see it dissipates, unless you are one of those people who are like, ‘I’ve got to see it in the theater the first weekend, I’m so excited’.”
Asked about New York’s enhanced tax credits passed in April, Vachon said the key change is that the state will pay out faster. “That’s what they said, it should. The proof is in the pudding and we haven’t eaten that pudding yet. But that’s been an issue for us … If it’s a true independent film, how can you get somebody to cash flow and lend against something you’re not going to get back for five years?” (Sometimes it’s sooner, but long waiting time has been a common lament of filmmakers working in New York.)
As for other improved state incentives popping up in California and elsewhere, she said, “It’s all great and I hope it really makes a difference. But unfortunately, there is no comparison to shooting overseas in terms of cost. But not every movie can withstand that shift creatively.
Materialists from A24 is still in theaters. Vachon said it seemed to appeal to a lot of different kinds of people. I always do a little walk about of the various theaters when a movie opens and I was amazed. The audience was young, but not exclusively. It brought out a lot of different types.”
Upcoming is Late Fame by Kent Jones which is premiering at the Venice Film Festival.
NEW INDIE FILMS OPENING, details and trailers on the way:
Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story from Kino Lorber, winner of Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.
Mubi’s Harvest by Athina Rachel Tsangari from Venice 2024 (see Deadline review).
Victor Kossakovsky’s Berlin-premiering documentary Architecton (see Deadline review) from A24.
Film Movement’s The Sparrow In The Chimney by Ramon Zücher.
Oscilloscope with Will Braden’s summer staple CatVideoFest.
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