It seems that even as the UK flaunts its tax incentives to producers around the world, there’s another problem bubbling in the UK distribution market.
Here, the article is talking about the indie film, ‘Santosh’,
“By most standards, Sandhya Suri’s fiction feature debut “Santosh” is already a hit. After premiering in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar, the Hindi-language crime thriller about a widow who inherits her late husband’s police officer job in rural India has gone on to win the Golden Frog for debut director in Camerimage, land a European Film Award nomination and win two British Independent Film Awards.”
And yet the article goes on to tell us about the problems it faced in getting a distribution deal.
The article goes on to say,
“But as many industry execs and experts across have noted, the problems to find a buyer had very little to do with “Santosh” as a film — which just a few years ago by would have been snapped up almost instantaneously. Rather they were more to do with what at least two people have described to Variety as the “utter shitshow” that is the current state of U.K. distribution when it comes to arthouse or foreign language titles. As one exec more eloquently puts it, the situation that “Santosh” faced “highlights the crisis in U.K. indie distribution … nobody’s buying and everybody’s terribly cautious.””
So what is the solution to this, when even award winning films have trouble finding a UK buyer?
https://variety.com/2024/film/global/uk-independent-film-distribution-cr...
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Fascinating article, Geoff Hall. My hope rests at the end of the article - clearly a course correction is needed in the UK but there will always be an audience for good work so its about reaching that audience responsibly. Someone will crack that code in the UK and reap the benefits.
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Sam Sokolow Hi Sam, the glimmer of hope for me, was to do with Vue Cinemas developing their own distribution wing. What’s the situation in the US? Do Cinema chains have their own distribution companies?