No One Will Distribute Your Movie... But You
You spent five years making the movie you thought would be your calling card.
Called in every favor. Spent every dollar. Kept going long after everyone stopped answering your emails.
Now you’re done. Ready for a deal. Ready for the money, the validation — maybe the momentum to make the next one.
Then the slap of reality hits.
Ouch
Making the film? That was the easy part.
Even if you have been marketing and grinding your film out on social media you know you need to do more.
So you strap in and start submitting to film festivals. All the big ones and plenty of small ones you are pretty sure are a safe bet.
You burn through another $3,000 in submission fees.
You wait. Then the rejections pile in.
Most festivals are receiving 3,000 to 5,000 submissions. Yours was one of them.
What They Offer You
Eventually you score a premiere or some other screenings. Maybe you throw your own (you’d be smart do it, TBH).
And lo and behold you wake up to an email with a contract from a distributor you’ve never heard of.
They have a catalog with one or two films you kind of recognize.
The contract is five years, no guarantee, no support.
And you think… is this my only option?
Yes and No
No, you don’t have to sign that deal. In fact you shouldn’t.
If you're already holding a finished film, this advice might feel late. But it's not. Because in reality you are just get started.
Don’t get discouraged. I did the same thing with my first feature.
My film Bad Animal played out almost exactly like this. We made it for $50K. Got into festivals. Won awards. Had some buzz. And then — nothing. Total failure to launch.
Did my movie suck?
We got screenings, festivals, awards. It was the real thing.
A micro-budget indie — but I was proud of it
But we had no real plan for what came after. And I’ve heard this story from almost every filmmaker in the same situation. It’s not just a cliche, it’s the norm.
Self-Distribution Isn’t a Backup Plan. It’s the Only Plan.
There’s an opportunity for you (and all of us) to do better.
The gatekeepers have been eradicated, but it didn’t democratize the film industry — it collapsed it. The economics no longer work.
Streaming doesn’t pay. Distributors can’t sell. Aggregators often do better than traditional deals.
Even YouTube pays more per view than most indies earn from platforms.
Feature films have become a niche genre. That’s the state of things.
All that’s left is marketing. And for better or worse — that’s on us.
What I Learned the Hard Way
After Bad Animal, I changed how I approached everything.
My next project didn’t go to Sundance. It didn’t need to.
It went direct to the people I’d spent years building a relationship with.
That campaign raised nearly $500,000 from less than 3,000 backers.
And you likely haven’t even heard of this movie. But to make projects like this succeed requires a shift:
Start building an audience and market your work like no one else will. Because they won’t.
We Can Still Succeed
Doing it yourself isn’t just viable. It’s often the only real option.
And the film you finished? It is your calling card.
Not to get rich. Not to “get picked up.”
But to start building an audience that actually wants to hear from you again.
A Small Thank You
In the spirit of this I’m giving away three signed Blu-Rays of my film BAD ANIMAL.
Sure, you could stream it, but this is much more personal.
To enter the giveaway, just subscribe to the newsletter. That’s it.
Every other week, I write about filmmaking, creative survival, and how to navigate a world that still needs original work (even if we forget sometimes).
If you made something real, it still matters. But no one’s coming to distribute your film.
That job — like every other part of this — is now ours.
