16 Years at IndieWire, and My Last Issue of In Development

It’s 5 am, I’m on my first cup of coffee, and I’m writing my final issue of In Development. It’s also my last day at IndieWire after nearly 16 years as its Editor-in-Chief.

When I launched In Development in May 2025, Hollywood was starting to realize that the whole “Stay alive until ’25!” thing might not work out. And with never-ending layoffs, dystopian mergers, and Hollywood as a production desert, ’26 didn’t lend itself to snappy one-liners. So, now what? 

In a town that never admits its own ignorance, it was kind of nice to see people rally around the shared realization that they had no clue. 

I didn’t either, but it was a great time to start asking questions. My initial thesis was to probe what it now means to have a sustainable career in the film industry. I imagined extracting best practices, truths about the way Hollywood really works, etc.  

Turned out, best practices and secret truths are useless when optimism comes from the willingness to reconsider everything.

I joined IndieWire in December 2011 as its second editor-in-chief, when it was indie news, festival dispatches, and film criticism. Today I’m proud of how IndieWire’s ethos remains even as its shape changed. We went bicoastal from my kitchen table, added TV coverage as the medium exploded, built awards coverage into a year-round beat, moved into video, and won lots of awards. 

But what I’m proudest of is the team that wrote brilliant criticism and impactful journalism, who worked hard and stayed kind while doing it. Turns out everything lives downstream of culture you create. And I think IndieWire can take some credit for seeing indie film become part of a much larger cultural conversation. (Just saying.)

And now I’m leaving IndieWire because I see something forming that doesn’t have a home yet — brands financing films, creators launching studios, producers building their own IP, capital chasing story more than content.