Dogfish Accelerator For Film Makers Announced At Sundance

Dogfish Accelerator, Dogfish Pictures, New York startups, film maker accelerator, Indie Film acceleratorWith all this talk lately about “catfish”, it’s only appropriate that we report on Dogfish, a new accelerator launching in New York for film makers. For starters we love the idea of attaching the accelerator model to independent film.

We’ve seen the success of a cohort based accelerator in the medical device field with ZeroTo510. One of the biggest reasons that the program was so successful was that Seed Hatchery,brought the tech-startup based acceleration model to a bunch of scientists and doctors. To most folks, scientists and doctors speak an entirely different language. That makes it almost impossible for a great medical device idea to get traction and interest among traditional investors. VC’s and angels prefer to invest in things that they either understand or can learn to understand.

The same holds true about creatives. Film makers are often die hard creatives and extremely passionate about their work. Most investors would love to invest in a movie, or independent film but there is a disconnect between Hollywood and Wall Street. That’s why New York based Dogfish Pictures has launched the new accelerator.

Creative, often left brained, geniuses will get the chance to cowork with other like minded individuals and at the same time they’ll have access to mentors, investors and industry contact that they wouldn’t already have access to.

The program is founded by James Belfer and Michelle Soffen of Dogfish Pictures. Belfer is hoping to turn film makers into successful entrepreneurs.

“At the end of the day, James and I are doing this because we love independent film and want to be a part of the solution to the many problems our industry faces,” added Soffen. “While there are no quick fixes we do know that the only way to address these hurdles is as a community.”

Belfer actually worked at the Techstars program last year, which is one of the reasons they decided to do this program at Dogfish and take the best parts of the tech startup cohort based accelerator.

Applying best practices from the tech industry, Dogfish Accelerator offers a combination of funding, business training, coaching and access to a large network of resources and vendor perks.

Each Dogfish Accelerator Program participant gets US $18,000 as a team in seed funding along with free office space, production resources from Dogfish’s partners, and most importantly, access to industry mentors and investor groups who provide coaching for business strategy and team management.

The accelerator program will be funded by the Dogfish Pictures Film Fund II. To be launched later this year, this new fund will provide equity financing to independent filmmakers who have demonstrated their ability to make creative films while using sound business practices. In addition, a portion of the Fund will be made available to provide follow-on equity financing to Dogfish Accelerator teams that successfully complete the program.

Mentorship is a vital aspect of the Dogfish Accelerator program, which promotes openness and community building.

The company connects production teams with experts from all parts of the film industry, including finance, production, distribution, marketing and sales. In addition, Dogfish Accelerator is bringing in innovative thinkers from outside of the film industry, such as technology and branding experts, to stimulate new approaches.

The Dogfish accelerator program will take place in the summer of 2013 in New York City. Applications are being accepted now.

They already have a list of who’s who in New York and the independent film scene that’s committed to participating in the program.

Belfer got to present the program at the Innovator’s Brunch as part of the Sundance Film Festival today.

You can find out more about Dogfish here.

You can find out more about the Global Accelerator Network and hundreds of startups and entrepreneurs at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.