Hi everyone! My name is Ani Asfura and, in this video, I will share with you 3 tips of
where you can sell your film. Coming up!
Hey! Welcome back to another video. If you are new around here, in this channel I share
tips and tools to help indie filmmakers build their film strategies, so if you want to be
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Now, let’s talk about where you can sell your film.
Mainly we have 3 ways; film festivals, films markets,
and the old fashion way, bureaucracy.
Yes, bureaucracy, we have bureaucracy in the
film industry too.
Let’s jump to Film Festivals first. Here the atmosphere is just great to make a sell.
It’s all about the movies, the performances, the creativity, the new filmmakers. It creates
a good environment for everyone. The acquisitions people is there just to watch movies, to make
business, so they want to meet you guys, they want to meet the new filmmakers, so it's a
very good opportunity for you.
Now you can have some extra points here, if your film has been nominated or has won an
award. For example, if your film has been nominated as Best Documentary at the CPH Dox
festival, or even smaller ones, they’re gonna pay attention to it and they’re gonna
start asking, who’s this filmmaker? What’s this movie about?
And this will help you when you get to the negotiating table. Which is another good factor
here, because is in person, face to face, very valuable. Film festivals are those kind
of events than gather a lot of sales agents and distributors in just one place for 5 to
7 days, depending of the festival of course, but you have the time to talk to them, get
to know them, and they have the opportunity of course to get to know you as well.
Now the second place where you can sell your film, is the film markets. Personally, I love
film markets, because I love film business. Some producers don’t like it too much, because
it gets a little overwhelming sometimes, it's true, I agree with that, but it's finally
the best place to connect with other producers, filmmakers, sales agents, distributors, and
so on.
We have great markets around the world, like Marché du Film at Cannes, European Film Market
in Berlin, American Film Market in Los Angeles. And also we have MIPCOM and NAPTE, which both
are focus more into tv programing. Just to name a few of them.
So, if you want to know what is the atmosphere in this kind of events, think about the Conventions,
like the Tech Conventions or something like the Comic-Con, for example, it's all about
booths, it's all about advertisement, and it's all about networking.
Now, it’s a very competitive environment. So, if you want to approach to them, you better
have your pitch ready, you better have a good log line. For that you can actually check
my other video about how to pitch, I'll leave the link in the description below and up here,
and then you'll find out what are the things you need to have ready for a particular moment
like this one.
This is very business oriented. So, you may not have the opportunity to go to grab a coffee
with them, because the mindset is more like: I’m here to work, I got to like acquiree X amount
of films. I got to sell X amount of films.
So, if you’re an indie filmmaker going around this jungle, you better have a great pitch
so you can grab their attention.
Now, for the ones that they are looking for funding, I think this is THE moment to pitch
your project. Because they are more like in the business mode. So, you can go to a booth
and just say; Hi my name is Ani, I’m film producer, I'm producing my fourth film, it
has Florence Pugh in it.
Florence Pugh...
That would be awesome actually.
Back to the point. And you can tell them that you’re looking for a buyer for the end of
the film, and because they are in this business mode, they would run some numbers and they
will probably have a meeting with you. So, don’t waste this opportunity there. You
can try to approach to them the last 2 or 3 days before the market is over, because
the first 4 or 5 five days they will probably be focused on their main goal which is selling.
And finally, we have number three, which is the old fashioned way. If you didn’t have
the chance to go to a film market or have a meeting with a distributor in a film festival,
then you have to follow the bureaucracy and just go and knock on their door. A lot of
film submissions happen online, over the phone or you can maybe have a connection, maybe
someone who works in a distribution company or you can use LinkedIn and check if one of
your contacts is already in touch with this distribution company or this person in particular.
It’s pretty straightforward once you contact somebody there, and they would probably ask
you for a synopsis, technical specs, credits. And if they like what they see, they will
eventually want to see the film, so you need to have a Vimeo link password protected ready.
And as I said before in other videos, just wait until they ask for the movie, don’t
send it in the first conversation that you have. For that, you can use the trailer, the
trailer works just fine for a first approach. But, as I said, wait until they ask for the
movie.
Then, if everything goes well, you will have a meeting in person, which is great, you'll
have that moment face to face, very valuable, as I said before, because now you have that
opportunity to know the person you're going to work with.
I don't know why, but in the last years, people has underestimated in person meetings. Nowadays
they've realized how important and necessaries they are, because come on, a Zoom meeting
cannot replace that feeling, that energy that you have when you are with a person in the
same room together. Especially if you are closing a deal or making a negotiation.
Well, I hope this video was helpful for you, let me know in the comments below, you can
hit the like button as well. And my last recommendation would be, just try to go to as many film festivals
as you can, in your region, in your area, small ones, doesn’t matter, you just need
to live the experience. The same thing with film markets, try to go at least two in your
filmmaker's career, because it would help you to start building your network.
That’s it. Thank you for checking out this video. Keep crushing it and see you next time.