10 Ways to Find a Distributor for Your Film
While self-distribution is always a possibility, since you can contact many theaters, retailers like Amazon, and online showcases yourself, being your own distributor can be hard time-consuming work. It may also be difficult to be noticed and get significant sales without big bucks for promotion. That’s why it’s best to find a distributor to pick up your film, and the bigger and more influential the distributor the better. Sometimes distributors will act as sales agents, too, which can help you sell your film to a much bigger company. In either case, the bigger distributors and sales agents are especially interested in the name talent you have in your film, since that is a major draw in getting viewers, and hence profits, for your film.
Initially, you may find you are limited to interest from small distributors, since you aren’t yet known and don’t have the budget to bring in name actors. But as you complete more films, especially if you are able to bring in name talent for feature films and TV projects, you can attract larger and large distributors.
So how do you get your first distributor? Here are some tips for getting started, based on my experience based on getting distributors for the first four films for Changemakers Productions, with three more completed films getting offers to select from in the next few weeks. While there may be some exceptions, these are the basic guidelines for getting started.
1) Complete the film and a trailer for the film. Distributors aren’t interested in making an offer on just a script or trailer for a film, no matter how promising the concept and any initial work you have done on the film. They also aren’t interested in going partners with you or putting up any money as investors to complete the film. Getting such funding usually only happens for established directors and producers, or if you’ve managed to get a major star, which is a very rare exception unless you are starting out with film industry connections. Once you complete the film, as with a script, register the copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office.
2) To get the money for your first film, you usually need to come up with it yourself, turn to family and friends, or perhaps risk borrowing on your credit card or equity line. When crowdfunding first started, a number of first timers did raise funds with a clever campaign. But unless you’ve got some unusually compelling story, crowdfunding doesn’t work very well for films. Too many people tried raising money for their films, and most flopped.
3) Create a screener from your completed film, and include the credits and your contact information at the end. Put the screener on a DVD or flash drive which you can give a prospective distributor personally, and be sure to protect the file to prevent copying. Preferably, protect it with a password, so no one can see it without that password. Also, upload the screener onto a video platform, such as Vimeo, where you require a password to see the file. If you use YouTube, set the listing to “private,” so only those people granted access can see the film.
4) Typically, distributors will want to see a short description, log line, or synopsis first to determine if they want to know more about your film. Then, they will look at your trailer. After that if they are still interested, they will want to see your screener. In some cases, they may ask you to fill out a formal submission form where you describe the film you are submitting and provide the copyright number you have received, even though you may not have yet gotten the copyright form, which commonly takes a few months to obtain. If you are asked for this number, provide it with your submittal. Do not ask a distributor to fill out an NDA. They normally won’t do this, and just making the request can brand you as an amateur.
5) To find distributors, one way is to go to the AFM (the American Film Market), where most of the exhibitors are distributors or sales agents representing distributor. Then you need at least a one-day pass for about $250, or get a half-AFM pass for about $400. That pass will give you access to the floors where the exhibitors have their showrooms and to the pool area, where many distributors hang out during breaks or after the show. If possible, contact exhibitors who are distributing your type of film before the show to set up a brief meeting. Alternatively, you can go up and down the aisles and briefly meet with a rep there if you are lucky or minimally pick up cards to contact the distributors later. In most cases, don’t expect to have more than a very short time to briefly pitch your project in about 30 seconds to a minute. Then, if there is interest, follow-up later with more information — generally the synopsis and link to the trailer and screener, plus a cover letter or one-page sales sheet about your film. Another option is going to conferences, pitch fests, and other film industry events where there may be some distributors, to whom you can similarly briefly present your project and follow-up later.
6) Another way to find distributors is sending a query letter to them. You can research these contacts through various industry directories, the AFM list of exhibitors, a list of films in your genre from IMDB, or online searches. An alternative to doing your own research is to send out a query letter to over 1000 distributors and sales agents through PublishersAgentsFilms (www.publishersagentsfilms.com), which puts together a database of distributors from multiple industry sources and will do the mailing for you under your email. Then, interested distributors contact you for more information.
7) If distributors are still interested in your film after seeing your screener, they may want to have a further discussion with you about your project, usually by phone or email. Or they may send you a contract. These contracts tend to be fairly long, and will include a request for all kinds of files and promotional information. You have to be able to provide many different versions of your film, such as without the audio for translations, as well as send in various agreements and other documents, such as showing you have full music rights and release forms for everyone in the film. These contract provisions get quite technical, so you may want to have a lawyer review them to understand your obligations. For the most part these long contracts are written in dense legalize with boilerplate paragraphs, and you generally need to accept all or almost all of it, though there are a few key provisions where you can possibly request changes, though if the distributor remains firm, it’s usually better to accept the deal than have no deal at all, unless the distributor is asking for big bucks up front, where it may be best to turn down the offer.
The key provisions to note include the following:
- worldwide rights or rights for particular territories (commonly North America only);
- the length of the agreement (commonly 5–12 years, though you may be able to make this for a shorter time period, such as by requesting that the film has to earn at least a small amount each year after three years, or you can write to request a reversion of rights to the fim before the full term of the contract);
- the requirement for E&O (Earnings and Omissions) insurance (maybe you can get the distributor to absorb it or take it out of your future earnings);
- the size of their marketing budget and what it includes.
8) Do not expect to get any money up front for your first film. In fact, you may have to pay some money, which may come out of your first earnings, in order to get a distribution deal. These upfront payments can vary from a few thousand to $25,000 to $50,000 depending on the size of the distributor and the territory they are asking for. You may also be asked to cover the E&O insurance, which you may be required to obtain yourself or sometimes the distributor will purchase it for you, but you still have to pay for this. Commonly, the cost of E&O insurance is about $1000 to $2000 a year, though you may be able to get it for as little as $500 a year. Sometimes you can arrange to only obtain this insurance for the first year, but some distributors want you to have it for every year.
9) To help you decide which distributor to choose, do some research on each distributor who has expressed interest in your film or offered you a contract. You can check out information about the distributors by going to their websites. See what other films they have distributed, especially in your genre, and consider the success they have had in distributing other films and how long they have been in business. Also, ask about their distribution plans for your film, such as what retail channels they expect to contact and whether they will be entering your film in festivals. The more active they will be in making your film available, the better. And ideally, you want a distributor who has at least some films you have heard of, though when you are first getting started, you may be contacted by smaller distributors who have only been in the business for a few years. At least that could be a start, and having a distributor, even if very small, resulting in limited distribution, can lead to a bigger distributor for your next film — and you may even be able to get back the rights to your first film and distribute it with a bigger distributor.
10) Be patient, because it may take a few weeks or months after a distributor has expressed interest to get a contract or conclude a deal, especially if this connection has occurred in the October-January period before and after the big AFM show and during the holidays. Then, once you obtain a distributor, learn to be patient again, since after signing a contract, it takes about 1–2 months for you to submit the requested deliverables. Then, it takes the distributor another 2–3 months to make sales to various retail channels and another 2–3 months for the film to be officially released and promoted from these channels. So generally, from the time of signing the contract, it takes about 5–8 months before the film is released. Afterwards, it takes several months for the distributor to start getting payments for sales, and you generally won’t get a statement about earnings for 6 months to a year after that. If the distributor is taking out marketing fees, those get deducted first, plus the distributor takes a commission — generally 25–30%. So you probably won’t see any returns on your first film, less the distributor’s commission, until 2 or 3 years later. Yet, even if a film distribution agreement may not be very lucrative in the beginning, it opens the door for your next film, and that helps with your next film. Then, at some point, as you become more successful and do bigger and bigger budget films with name actors, you may even get some money upfront.
In sum, think of distributing your first film like starting in school or beginning any career. Each year you learn a little more and you work your way up to the next level and the next. At first you may make little or no money and shouldn’t expect to do so. But you are preparing the way for more and more success in the future.
GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, Ph.D., J.D., is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar leader, specializing in business and work relationships, professional and personal development, social trends, and popular culture. She has published 50 books with major publishers. She has worked with dozens of clients on memoirs, self-help, popular business books, and film scripts. Writing samples are at www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com.
She is the founder of Changemakers Publishing, featuring books on work, business, psychology, social trends, and self-help. The company has published over 150 print, e-books, and audiobooks. She has licensed several dozen books for foreign sales, including the UK, Russia, Korea, Spain, and Japan.
She has received national media exposure for her books, including appearances on Good Morning America, Oprah, and CNN. She has been the producer and host of a talk show series, Changemakers, featuring interviews on social trends.
Scott is active in a number of community and business groups, including the Lafayette, Pleasant Hill, and Walnut Creek Chambers of Commerce. She is a graduate of the prestigious Leadership Contra Costa program. She does workshops and seminars on the topics of her books.
She is also the writer and executive producer of 10 films in distribution, release, or production. Her most recent films that have been released include Driver, The New Age of Aging, and Infidelity.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and her J.D. from the University of San Francisco Law School. She has received five MAs at Cal State University, East Bay, most recently in Communication.