Alexander Dinelaris is a producer, playwright and screenwriter best known for his work on Alejandro Iñárritu’s last two features. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Revenant. Dinelaris, along with the other three credited screenwriters, won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Birdman in 2015. His smart stories offer a peek into his rocky beginnings.

Next up in our 2Spooky series, some favourite horror films from some of the SP staff members. A cross-section of genre films, recent treats and veritable classics. Watch one this weekend.

To coincide with our Halloween themed Horror Promo, we’re highlighting five films directed by SP members and patrons in recent years. Five unique and exciting horror films that challenge the genre’s conventions, and subvert expectations, in the way only independent film can.

Last week I picked out my personal favourites from the BIFA Most Promising Newcomer Long List. The list is long and full of brilliance so this week I’ve asked my fellow BIFA brain’s trust member, the magnificently gifted Myanna Buring to share the performers from the list who shined brightest for her…

With Halloween approaching on the horizon, and our promo underway, here’s a list of the best spooky gatherings going on around the capital to get your skin crawling in excitement.

The latest in Albert Serra’s series of imaginative retellings of the legends of historical or literary figures might be his best yet, and is certainly his most accessible. The Death of Louis XIV was conceived initially as a performance piece, commissioned by the Centre Pompidou and due to take place over 15 days there, and elements of this form remain. Starring a 71-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud as the near-terminal Sun King, Serra’s film takes place entirely within the royal chamber, ensuring the “unity of location, space and time” that the director insists – alongside multiple-camera setups, a refusal to rehearse scenes and an insistence on recording massive amounts of material whilst in production – is essential to producing fruitful artistic results.

The 36th Cambridge Film Festival’s Microcinema strand will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the London Film-Makers’ Co-op with 4 programmes of exciting new artist’s moving image films. The Microcinema strand will also have an immersive moving-image installation by artist and experimental filmmaker, Steve Farrer, followed by a roundtable discussion about where moving image was, is now, and will be in the future.

Eglantine, the first feature from artist and filmmaker Margaret Salmon, is full of love – love for nature, love for the family, love of earth and love of the land. A warm and sensuous film, Eglantine could best be described as “a healing film” – one that, as it radiates with calmness and purity, restores the senses and the soul through the viewing of it.

We profiled the expanding career of American filmmaker and October Film of the Month judge Ira Sachs at the beginning of the month. Here he tells us his side – how he got his start, how he’s maintained his independence, and how he has been giving back.