Filmmakers tend to become obsessed with getting their films into as many festivals as possible. The more festivals, the better the film. They also submit their films to festivals to make a sale. They hope to fly back home with a check in their pocket.
In an article by Chris O'Falt in IndieWire, filmmaker Danielle Renfrew Behrens says that she had high hopes when her film, Columbus, premiered at Sundance and garnered some excellent reviews. She assumed that there would be distribution offers that, at the very least, would make her investors happy. It didn't quite work out that way. We did get offers, but they didn't make sense for us. The film would have had a respectable release, but we wouldn't have recouped based on that offer.
Indie filmmakers contemplating the festival circuit must ask themselves the following question: Is it worth the expense when the odds of getting a deal are around 100 to 1? Costs of attending festivals are increasing each year as budgets become tighter. Festivals these days are expensive.
Another option is to book your film on our CINEMAflix DISTRIBUTION Program. This is a sure thing: your film will open in a prestigious art house theater; your film will be handled by an expert publicist; your film will be encoded and submitted to the major digital platforms and cable VOD stations; and DVDs of your film will be marketed to the DVD wholesalers.
NEWS BRIEF:
In addition to all the movies Disney produces for theaters, typically around ten a year, the company will produce four or five lower-budget movies exclusively for its new digital service. The company will also make four or five original series and three or four television movies, also to be available on its subscription streaming channel.---Ben Fritz, The Wall Street Journal.
RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS AND THAT:
Can you believe that back in the '50s, Colt Manufacturing ran ads for guns? The tagline was, Give yourself a present you've probably wanted for years---a fine Colt Handgun. ...Also during that period, sexism in advertising went unquestioned. Here's a tagline for the Kenwood Multi-Mix: The Chef does everything but cook---That's what wives are for. ...A must-read book is Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes by Annette Innsdorf. ...NEW YORK Magazine also omitted Paddy Chayefsky from its list of All Time Best Screenwriters. He received three Oscars for Marty (1955), The Hospital (1971), and Network (1976). And he received an Oscar nomination for The Goddess (1958). ...When Disney cancelled its deal with Netflix it gave up an income stream of around $300 million a year. Their strategy is that income from their new streaming channel will offset this loss. Time will tell.
FILM EXCHANGE:
With the year coming to a close, the season of Oscar-talks and Best Ten lists will begin. I welcome your opinions and predictions.
