As we have been saying over the past few weeks, 2006 has been a pretty good year for indie film. Not only for filmmakers but for audiences as well. You. Now how great is that. You, the indie audience, have been treated to a plethora of incredible performances by the old indie favorites - Maggie Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Ryan Gosling, etc. films from great indie directors - Spike Lee, Sofia Coppola, John Cameron Mitchell, Michael Winterbottom, etc. and fantastic work from new filmmakers such as Paul Taylor's WE ARE TOGETHER, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland's QUINCEANERA and Richard Wong's COLMA: THE MUSICAL. There has been more access to indie and foreign films then ever before. Stories about films such as THE QUEEN, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, SHUT UP AND SING, BABEL, SHORTBUS, BUBBLE, THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY to name very few - dominated popular press as never before. You , the audience, were able to read about, hear about, and see more about indie films than indie music - with the explosion of myspace that is something. Judging by the very significant box office grosses garnered by docs just this past weekend, more and more of you went to see indie films this year. Even if you don't necessarily think of docs as indie films, they are. Hooray!

As Michelle mentioned last week, 2006 has been the year of alternative ways of marketing and distribution of indie and foreign films. MySpace, YouTube and Google all had a place in increasing the audience for independent film - not just in the US but all over the world. Mark Cuban tried to shake things up with day and date and while the numbers of people going to see films in theaters has decreased, the numbers of DVD rentals has increased tremendously. Festival attendance numbers are increasing and more and more of you are subscribing to IFC and Sundance Channel. There was a great shift in independent and foreign film landscape this year and I can only look hopefully towards the future to see where the chips fall.

It has all been really exciting for those of us who work to bring indie film to audiences as there is nothing better than having great work to get out to receptive audiences.

So here's looking to 2007.

Thanks for all of your support for us at indieIN and for indie and foreign film in general. Watch this space for some exciting things to come.

Keeping it indie,

Julie