What is the industry definition of an Independent Filmmaker?
A professional filmmaker working mostly outside of the studio circuit and whose films can be picked by the studios on a Negative Pick Up, which is NOT a sweet deal: read more on wiki

My personal definition of an Independent Filmmaker is:
A Financially Independent Filmmaker

How can a filmmaker be financially independent?
a) May have rich parent and rich friends**
b) Controls his/her distribution just like the studios control theirs.

If you are reading this post, you might be a filmmaker seeking financial independence. Consequently, you might not have had the chance to choose your parents ahead of time, and this means its too late to consider option A.

But you can go to filmannex.com to create a profile, assign your films or films from our Open Film Library to your Web TV, establish your distribution channel, and get 50% of the revenues on all the ads.

** Many years ago, I dated a beautiful actress who was a scientologist. My friend Said and I attended an event at the Scientology headquarters on the Upper East Side. From what I remember, if memory serves me right, a member mentioned that people in the Scientology community get to chose their parents. I'm not surprised that so many actors and filmmakers in LA are associated to Scientology. They plan really ahead.