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How Crowdfunded Films Attract In-Kind Sponsors to Save Money

Crowdfunding can be a lifeline for indie filmmakers. It provides upfront capital, builds a fanbase, and gives your project early momentum. But even a successful campaign often falls short of covering the full production cost, especially once you factor in backer rewards, platform fees, and unforeseen expenses. That’s where sponsorship comes in. Rather than trying to raise more money to pay for…

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Turning Indie Films into Revenue Streams Via Licensing

Film licensing is the process by which the rights to distribute, exhibit, or broadcast a film are granted to a third party. This can take many forms: a TV channel buying the rights to air your movie for six months, a streaming platform acquiring exclusive distribution for a region, or a foreign distributor licensing the film for release in their territory. Licensing is not the same as selling a…

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What Filmmakers Need to Know About Automotive Brand Deals

Automotive companies are always in search of new ways to stay visible, aspirational, and culturally relevant. While big-budget action films and TV series have long been the domain of brands like Audi, BMW, and Dodge, there’s a quieter strategy happening behind the scenes, partnering with indie filmmakers to get vehicles into story-driven, lower-cost productions. The logic is simple: film is…

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Sponsored Web Series Are the Future of Brand-Backed Filmmaking

For decades, brands were relegated to the sidelines of film and TV—footnotes in product placement deals or sponsors of commercial breaks. But today, many are skipping the middleman entirely. From fashion labels to beverage companies, brands are now funding and producing their own content in the form of sponsored web series. These aren’t just glorified ads—they’re often polished, narrative-driven,…

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Why Your Forgotten Indie Film Might Still Make Money

Most indie films get a brief moment in the sun, maybe a small theatrical run, a festival circuit, or a modest DVD release. Then they quietly fade into obscurity. But streaming platforms have rewritten that script. With the right tweaks, older indie films can find new audiences, generate fresh revenue, and build the filmmaker’s brand retroactively. The streaming economy doesn’t care when a film…

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A Survival Guide for When Your Film Doesn’t Sell

Every year, thousands of independent films are completed, and most will never land a traditional distribution deal. Not because they’re bad. Sometimes they’re too niche. Sometimes they’re poorly timed. Sometimes they simply fall through the cracks of an overcrowded, trend-driven industry. If you’ve made a film and it’s not getting attention from buyers, it’s easy to feel like you’ve failed. But…

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Stop Waiting for a Sales Agent Start Studying Film Sales

Filmmakers love to say, “I’ll worry about distribution later.” But later is too late. By the time your film is finished, the die is cast. The tone, the length, the genre, the rating, the platform fit, the market positioning. All of it’s baked in. So if you made every decision assuming someone else would handle the business side? You’ve already lost leverage. You don’t need a sales agent to…

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What Sets Apart the 1 in 10 First-Time Filmmakers Who Land Domestic Distribution?

Most first-time filmmakers never land domestic distribution. The odds are bleak: only about one in ten break through. But if you analyze the ones who do, a clear pattern emerges. It’s not random. It’s not luck. It’s about perception. About presentation. About how the film looks before anyone even hits play. You want to know what those filmmakers did differently? It’s almost always the same three…

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We're Fixing Indie Film With Code, Data, and Sass (and SaaS)

Independent film is broken. Not creatively or artistically, but structurally. The stories are as strong as ever. The talent pool is massive. The hunger is real. Yet filmmakers are stuck in an outdated system—one that offers little transparency, fewer resources, and even fewer paths to sustainable careers. Here’s the truth: if you want to build a lasting film career today, you’re supposed to beg…

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What Do Filmmakers Misunderstand Most About Distribution?

Distribution isn’t the reward at the end of the journey. It’s not the final handshake. It’s not the bow on top of your finished film. Distribution is the strategy. It’s the engine. It’s the difference between your film being watched by two hundred people and being watched by two hundred thousand. And yet, most filmmakers misunderstand it completely. They treat it like a transaction. Like a…

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Here’s What Filmmakers Need for their Post-Festival Plan

You’ve made it. Your film just had its world premiere. Maybe at a prestigious festival. Maybe at a regional one that truly loved your work. You walked the carpet, took the Q&A mic, shook hands with buyers, and finally exhaled. Now what? If your answer is “wait and see,” you’re already behind. Because the truth is, the smartest filmmakers don’t go into festivals hoping to get lucky. They go in…

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The #1 Reason Your IndieGoGo Isn’t Getting Funded

If your crowdfunding campaign reads like a college essay, you’ve already lost. Your backers are not grading you. They’re not your professor. They’re not looking for structure, citations, or formal tone. They’re looking to feel something. Most indie filmmakers approach their campaign pages with the mindset of a grant application. They over-explain. They under-inspire. They bury the hook beneath…

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Want to Make Money Off Your Indie Film? Stop Obsessing Over Theaters

Most indie filmmakers treat the box office like it’s the final boss. But here’s the truth: it’s barely the tutorial level. Theaters are nice for prestige. They’re great for premieres, red carpets, Instagram posts, and a handful of press quotes. But financially? They are not your finish line. For most independent films, they’re a vanity metric. Only 1 in 5 indie films recoup through domestic…

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Your Indie Film Just Hit Tubi. Now What?

So your film just got picked up for AVOD. First of all, congrats. You’re officially in front of a real audience. Not just a theater of friends and family, not just a festival screening with a Q&A, but actual eyeballs. Now here comes the part that matters more than the pickup itself: How are you going to make people watch it? Because AVOD doesn’t come with built-in buzz. It’s not theatrical.…

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You Can’t Upload to Amazon Anymore, But You’re Not Out of Options

If you were hoping to release your indie film directly to Amazon Prime Video, it may already be too late. Amazon Prime Direct, once a wide-open platform for filmmakers to upload their work without a middleman, has quietly finished phasing out open submissions from independent creators. No fanfare. No press release. No dramatic public takedown. Just a slow fade into the background, replaced by a…

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Your Film Isn’t Too Niche. It’s Exactly What Streamers Want.

The idea that your story needs to be “universal” to succeed is outdated, false, and frankly, dangerous. For years, filmmakers from marginalized communities were told to smooth the edges of their culture. To make their characters “more relatable.” To replace specificity with sameness. All in the name of “marketability.” But in 2023, the numbers told a different story. BIPOC-led films with niche…

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If Sundance Is Your Only Plan, You Don’t Have a Plan

Let’s rip the Band-Aid off: if your entire distribution plan revolves around getting into Sundance, you don’t have a strategy. You have a fantasy. Look, we get it. The idea of your film premiering in Park City (ahem…Boulder…), packed into a sold-out theater full of buyers, agents, and Variety journalists is intoxicating. A standing ovation. A late-night acquisition bidding war. A flood of…