IndieGoGo filmmakers have been rocking the world stage in 2011. In the first six months, no fewer than fourteen films that successfully campaigned on IndieGoGo appeared in the world’s leading film fests, including Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Tribeca Film Fest, HotDocs, and LA Film Fest. These films have gone on to win top awards (Tribeca Audience Award) and get picked up by top distributors (The Weinstein Company).

In my responsibilities at IndieGoGo and Distribber, I’m regularly asked for advice and help with all facets of film finance and distribution. After answering so many of these one-off questions with the words, “lots of IndieGoGo campaigners have already figured that out,” it’s clear the filmmaker community would benefit from an update from IndieGoGo filmmakers who have had success.

As background, since 2008, the independent film community has been a central part of the IndieGoGo family; thousands of films have raised money for production, distribution, festival travel, promotion, marketing and for many other film funding needs.

IndieGoGo is partnered with leading organizations like Fractured Atlas and the San Francisco Film Society to offer filmmakers fiscal sponsorship services (Fractured Atlas campaigns recently passed $1,000,000.  Sheffield Doc/Fest, one of the world’s leading documentary events, also has been an active and innovative partner.

Below are links to all the amazing films, grouped by the festival in which they appeared. I encourage you to check out each campaign to learn more about pitch videos and copy, updates and perk selections, and how to engage an audience.

LA Film Fest
1. An Ordinary Family
2. Wish Me Away (1)  Wish Me Away (2)
3. Salaam Dunk

Cannes
4. Cerise

HotDocs
5. You’ve Been Trumped

Tribeca
6. Give Up Tomorrow (Won the audience award!)
7. The Bully Project Film (Was picked up by Weinstein Co.)
8. Love Hate Love - Tribeca Travel

SXSW
9. My Sucky Teen Romance (1)  My Sucky Teen Romance (2)
10. 8 (Award winner)
11. Sound It Out (1)   Sound It Out (2)   Sound It Out (3)
12. HAPPY NEW YEAR

Sundance
13. The High Level Bridge
14. The Rocket Boy

All of these campaigns succeeded on many levels, but there are three key areas that they nailed: They each had a great pitch, a proactive team, and each found the audience that cares about their passion and interacted with them consistently and creatively.

Note: This blog was originally posted on Hope For Film.