‘I’m Six Months Out From Bankruptcy at Any Moment’

The unglamorous financial realities of making an indie film right now.

- HERSHAL PANDYA

Romvari on the set of Blue Heron.

IN FEBRUARY 2025, while on the Oscars trail in support of The Brutalist, director Brady Corbet made headlines when he revealed he’d “made zero dollars” from his work on the film. With some exceptions, like 2026's surprise hits Obsession and Backrooms, this is a common story for independent filmmakers. By many metrics, the landscape isn’t improving. Filmmakers can grind for over two years on a film, and if, at the end of it, they make just enough money to pay back their investors, they consider themselves lucky. Here, five directors open up about the day jobs they've worked to pay the bills, the sacrifices they've made to pursue their labors of love, and a devolving industry that makes all this feel less sustainable every day.

THE DIRECTOR STILL WORKING PART TIME AT A MOVIE THEATER

SOPHY ROMVARI

LOCATION: Toronto YEARS IN INDUSTRY: 10 NOTABLE FILM: Blue Heron

"I HAVE NEVER really had a sustainable income as a filmmaker. I credit my ability to be one largely to living in Canada, which has allowed me to apply for grants and pay myself to write scripts, which is very difficult to come by in the U.S. It wasn't until Blue Heron came out and started playing festivals that I started to have somewhat of an income from awards, mostly out of Europe because they give cash awards to filmmakers with debuts. But it's not a given, and it's not going to sustain beyond this time period.