True to its name, IFC initially focused on independently-produced films. The network would eventually incorporate original and acquired television series into its lineup, as well as theatrically-released films airing alongside the indie flicks they started with. Shows acquired for IFC have ranged from imported cult comedies, like Monty Python's Flying Circus and Mr. Show, to anime titles, such as Hell Girl and Gunslinger Girl.
Originally a commercial-free service, IFC would start showing advertisements in-between programs by 2010. It wasn't until they started showing commercials during programming, in addition to censoring said programming, that viewers would callout the network on the decay taking hold. At the very least, IFC would reverse course on its censorship by 2012; the network still airs its content uncensored, something extremely rare for a commercial network.
In 2014, it was announced that the network had dropped its full name and is now legally known as IFC. By this time, IFC's programming slate would become fixated on comedies (complementing the drama-oriented AMC), while their acquired movie slate leaned slightly towards horror genre films.
Outside the channel, a film production and distribution company was founded in 2001, called "IFC Films", which has distributed titles such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Boyhood, Super, and hundreds of other films over the years; under three different labels: IFC Films for normal titles, IFC Midnight for darker and genre content, and Sundance Selects for documentaries and select foreign content. They mainly distribute their films simultaneously in theaters and on Video On Demand platforms
IFC Original series with their own pages include:
- Brockmire
- Bullet in the Face
- Comedy Bang! Bang!
- Documentary Now!
- Fishing with John
- Garfunkel and Oates
- Greg the Bunny
- The Henry Rollins Show
- The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
- Maron
- Onion News Network
- Out There
- Portlandia
- Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings
- Sherman's Showcase
- The Spoils of Babylon
- Stan Against Evil
- The Whitest Kids U' Know
IFC Films with their own pages include:
- Alone With Her
- AntiChrist
- Attenberg
- The Babadook
- The Baxter
- Blue Is the Warmest Color
- Boys Don't Cry (with Fox Searchlight Pictures)
- Boyhood
- Burke & Hare (US distributor)
- The Catcher Was a Spy
- Cold in July
- C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
- The Death of Stalin
- The Den
- Fahrenheit 9/11
- Following (2010 re-release).
- Flux Gourmet
- Frances Ha
- Greener Grass
- The House That Jack Built
- The Human Centipede
- I, Daniel Blake
- Intermission
- I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (with The Weinstein Company)
- Jenny's Wedding (US distributor)
- John and the Hole
- A Kid Like Jake
- The Killing of John Lennon
- Kill the Poor
- Late Night with the Devil
- The Ledge
- Lost in La Mancha
- Manderlay
- Mary and Max
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding
- Official Secrets (US distributor)
- Ophelia (US distributor)
- The Other Woman (2009)
- Pontypool (US distributor)
- Primer (With ThinkFilm)
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist
- The Rental
- Resurrection (2022)
- Save the Date (2012)
- The Skeptic
- Sleeping Beauty (2011)
- Sleeping With Other People
- Speak No Evil
- Spin Me Round
- Super
- Swallow
- This Film is Not Yet Rated (with BBC Films and Netflix)
- Transamerica (with The Weinstein Company)
- Watcher (with Amazon Studios)
- Werewolves Within
- Wiener-Dog (with Amazon Studios)
- Your Sister's Sister
