Releasing GAME : an online distribution adventure

A couple of months ago Charles Liburd from NMNC Films got in touch to tell me about his plans for GAME, a UK produced psychological thriller set in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I was impressed to hear the film had been produced without any grant funding and learned the film had not found a home with a Dutch distributor. Charles wanted to release the film in the Netherlands by himself, so the team of foremostfilm and myself got on board to try & make this happen, guerilla style.

GAME is an interesting film to market in the Netherlands. Its lead actrice is well known with a 20-49 year old shoppers / female TV audience and its plot touches the sensitive chord of imperialism’s afterbirth. Dialogue driven and reminiscent of Eugene O’Neills Long Day’s Journey Into Night or Polanski’s Carnage, the story of a diplomat couple and their troubled daughter unravels over the course of one evening. Nothing will ever be the same after.

No traditional film distribution means windows of opportunities but massive challenges at the same time, like generating media attention and building up relationships with partners & audiences.

We will start by making a racket with screening events end of August and go for a day-and-date release with VOD – if you’re interested why, read this previous blogpost. For our cinema release we partner with We Want Cinema, for our online release we are piloting both Distrify and Vimeo on Demand. Either way, as we are not supported by the promotional network of a distributor, we have to promote the film ourselves and that’s where most of our time goes at the moment.

Expect to read about my findings over the next few months and follow me on Twitter if you want to stay up to date on this distribution adventure.

This is a guest post by GAME’s online marketing partner Ellen Tolsma of SCREENpmd. To read the original post on her blog and browse more articles on online film marketing & distribution, click here.