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Substack Live: Six Offers. No Rep. No Problem. Indie Filmmaker Carolina Alvarez on Self-Distributing "Sync"

Release Date: 04/02/2026

Substack Live: Six Offers. No Rep. No Problem. Indie Filmmaker Carolina Alvarez on Self-Distributing "Sync"

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

This is a recording of a members-only Substack Live I hosted two weeks ago. If you're a paid subscriber, this is exactly the kind of access and conversation you're signing up for! Carolina Alvarez, writer-director and founder of Femme Regard, is the force behind Sync — a self-financed sci-fi feature now streaming on Amazon Prime that received SIX distribution offers. In this special chat, she breaks down what film school doesn't teach you: how she crowdfunded a feature in stages built a festival strategy around genre and community (not just prestige) reached out to 20+...

Personal Update + Listener Questions Answered

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

In this solo episode, I get candid. I open up about losing my father in January, what grief looks like when you can't afford to stop moving, and the complicated truth about showing up anyway — to the meeting, to the festival, to the mic. I also dig into eight listener questions from the year-end survey, covering: how I select guests, whether I'm still producing, how independent producers can find financing outside traditional models, tips for batching scenes on a micro-budget shoot, how to pitch yourself for freelance producing opportunities, where to actually network, how to work...

How Pam Carbonero Built The Directors Community of Her Dreams

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Pam Carbonero is a seasoned Latina director, producer, writer, and first AD with 15-plus short films, a 12-episode mini-series, and a one-and-a-half hour vertical series under her belt. When she's not directing, she's working full-time as a first AD across features, commercials, music videos, you name it. And she is a proud anti-gatekeeper. But the thing I really wanted to bring her on to talk about is what she built from scratch out of pure necessity: the LA Director's Lab. In 2021, she had an idea for a space where directors could simply practice their craft. She started small: six...

How Culture Impacts Craft with Marina Stabile, Producer of Sundance Winning Film "Josephine"

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Marina Stabile is a Brazilian-born, Swiss-raised producer and line producer with over 20 years of experience in film, documentaries, commercials, and digital content. She is also one of my favorite humans and I'm lucky I get to call her a friend. She grew up in São Paulo, moved to Geneva at 10, attended an international school with 118 nationalities, and knew she wanted to produce after watching the Irving Thalberg Award presented at 3 a.m. on an Oscar broadcast. She studied film and international relations at USC, produced documentaries for the United Nations in Geneva, and returned to the...

Live from Sundance with "Bedford Park" Producer Gary Foster on How to be a Director’s Offensive Lineman

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

*Brought to you in partnership with GreenSlate* Bucket list moment unlocked! 🎬 Our first-ever live episode from Sundance is here. I sat down with producer Gary Foster to talk about the seven-year journey of bringing "Bedford Park" to the screen—a deeply personal Korean-American story that almost didn't get made. We tackle: How Gary met director Stephanie Ahn 12 years ago when she was an assistant editor, and why he championed her debut feature for seven years The unconventional move that landed Hyundai as the first major investor with $1 million That terrifying moment when he...

What Sundance & TIFF Programmers Are Really Looking For

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Ever wondered how festival programmers decide which films make the cut? For our first episode of 2026, I'm joined by two incredible women who've been shaping the landscape of independent cinema for over a decade. Ana Souza has been with Sundance Film Festival for 10 years, working alongside some of the most exciting independent filmmakers in the world. Diana Cadavid is currently Director of Industry Programs for the Latino Film Institute (LFI) in Los Angeles, and International Programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) She helped build IFF Panama's programming...

Paul Feig on Comedy, Cult Classics & The Housemaid

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

When movie maestro and mixologist Paul Feig offers to teach you how to make a proper martini at 10a on a Wednesday, you say yes. It was thrilling to be tipsy before lunchtime. Almost as thrilling as it is to end 2025 with a conversation with the absolute icon that is director, producer, and comedy legend Paul Feig. Paul created the cult classic Freaks and Geeks, directed Bridesmaids, Spy, and A Simple Favor, and has helmed episodes of The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, and Arrested Development. He's a delight and the fun you feel watching is 100% the fun we had IRL. We dig into his...

Barbara Muschietti on 10 Years of Horror, TV Kicking Her Ass & What Actually Terrifies Her

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Barbara Muschietti is the phenomenal producer behind IT Chapter One & Two (combined $1.17B worldwide), The Flash, and the new Max series IT: Welcome to Derry. We actually met 5 years ago during my early podcast grind when I cold-emailed Barbara inviting her on the show. She said yes! She invited me to the Warner Brothers lot, to her office, and generously gave me almost 3 hours of her time. It was a real turning point for me and the show. The world, and certainly Hollywood, has changed tremendously since then. Full disclosure: we recorded this mere days before the audacious news that...

Civil Co-Founder Alan Morales the Intersection of Coffee & Production in LA

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

This week, I sit down with Alan Morales, co-founder of Civil Coffee, to explore the unexpected intersection of specialty coffee and film production in Los Angeles. Given LA's production crisis, I wanted to hear from someone on the ground—a small business owner in Highland Park who sees tons of filming and has thoughts on what producers and the city need to understand. Alan shares the espresso shot that changed his life, why he dropped out of electrical engineering one course away from graduating, and how Civil Coffee grew from mobile carts to three LA locations with their own roasting...

Hannah Lux Davis - On Directing Ariana Grande, the Importance of Taste, and Working with Huge Artists

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

Hannah Lux is a powerhouse music video and commercial director who's created iconic visuals for Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Katy Perry, Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, and Lil Wayne. But her path to the director's chair wasn't traditional. Hannah shares her 20-plus-year journey in LA—from working as a makeup artist on set to directing Lil Wayne, Drake, and Future on "Love Me," which now has over 620 million views. We dive deep into the making of Ariana Grande's "Thank U, Next," the video that broke YouTube records with 50 million views in 24 hours, and how she navigated legal clearances, celebrity...

More Episodes

This is a recording of a members-only Substack Live I hosted two weeks ago. If you're a paid subscriber, this is exactly the kind of access and conversation you're signing up for!

Carolina Alvarez, writer-director and founder of Femme Regard, is the force behind Sync — a self-financed sci-fi feature now streaming on Amazon Prime that received SIX distribution offers. In this special chat, she breaks down what film school doesn't teach you:

how she crowdfunded a feature in stages
built a festival strategy around genre and community (not just prestige)
reached out to 20+ distributors without a rep
spotted the red flags in bad offers
decoded the unsexy deliverables that can quietly blow your budget in post-production

This episode is for any filmmaker trying to figure out how to actually get your movie seen!

Subscribe to the AOP Substack for free to stay in the loop, or go paid to get access to members-only lives like this one, bonus content, and the full archive.

Links are in the show notes.

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