Market and Sell Your Feature Film (without losing your mind).

We all know that creating a feature-length film is only half the battle. The other half is finding your audience. If you’ve never sold a film, putting the puzzle together can be daunting. Here's some ideas to help you navigate marketing and distribution for your film.

Start Early: Marketing Begins in Pre-Production

Don’t make the mistake of waiting until post-production to think about marketing. You need to start before the cameras roll. Create a marketing strategy alongside your script breakdown. Identify your target audience, build your brand identity, and start teasing your project on social media. Use behind-the-scenes content, casting announcements, and location scouting to build interest and momentum.

“A publicity campaign for a film should begin during the pre-production stage. A successful film marketing campaign ensures a strong start. Following that, it will be critics and word-of-mouth that will keep you afloat.

Concentrating on film ads will attract a following that will sustain your efforts. Audiences review seven references before deciding which film to screen, according to a Google survey.

Because the number of people who follow you on social media is public, it will have a big impact on how broadcasters, distribution executives, and producers feel about the film and how much it’s worth.

Some movies left a huge impact on their audience not because the movie was extraordinary or something you’ve never seen before, but because of the way, it was marketed. Yes, of course, the movie story and other aspects like acting, direction, etc., played an important role.

But there’s something about the marketing strategies of these films that have become an inspiration for many advertising and marketing persons. While watching older movies, we rarely focus on how these would’ve been marketed. Considering how much it contributes to the movie’s success, film marketers are given very little credit for their tedious jobs.

The Blair Witch Project

Three filmmakers vanished in the hills of Burkittsville, Maryland, in 1999. All that was discovered of them was footage that would go on to become one of the most successful independent films of the modern century, revitalizing both the Horror and Indie film genres in the process.

The production company created a website with Missing posters plastered all over it a year before the film’s release. A documentary was aired that delves further into the mystery at the heart of the film’s plot, and the directors were conspicuously absent from any press appearances until their appearance at the MTV Movie Awards the year after the film’s debut.

Never before has a movie’s publicity strategy been so effective in faking the truth depicted in the film. The Blair Witch Project transformed the way people thought of film ads because it offered the public something they’d never seen before: a ticket to travel through time. There was no turning back from this stage on.” https://www.nfi.edu/film-marketing/3/

Word to the wise: Register your film’s domain name and create branded social handles early to lock down your digital identity.

Define Your Audience and Positioning

What’s great about your film, and who is it for? These two questions should drive every marketing decision you make. A film could lean into fan conventions and communities of the genre, while a socially conscious drama or documentary might benefit from partnerships with nonprofits or academic circles.

Create a profile of your ideal viewer: age, viewing habits, social media platforms, and where they discover new content. Then position your film to speak directly to them.

Finding your audience is the first step on the long road of your film’s distribution campaign. As early as possible, you need to ask yourself: who, exactly, is my audience? It’s a deceptively simple question that will have a huge impact on the trajectory of your project. The key to direct distribution success is to have an effective way to think about and identify your audience.

"In the mass media age, it was all about big: big hits, big stars, big box office. But as independent filmmakers, our competitive advantage is about small: small films, small budgets, and small but passionate audiences. The key is to really drill down to your tightest core audience—the people who will be most passionate about your film.

If you can make a connection with this smallest possible audience, you’re putting yourself in a position to succeed. If you focus all of your energy into converting this group into die-hard fans, you'll create evangelists who will help spread the message about your film.

1. Focus on finding your smallest possible audience

As we outline in our Filmmaker. MBA direct distribution course, your goal is to find the smallest possible audience for your film. This may sound counterintuitive, but as independent filmmakers, we’ll always have a limited amount of time and money to spend on marketing and distributing our films. Your goal should not be to market to everyone, but to focus your resources on your smallest possible audience—the people who are most likely to purchase your film and share it with friends. This approach works for character-driven films, social issue films, and even “personal films.”

2. Come up with an audience hypothesis

First, you want to come up with a hypothesis of who your audience might be. Ask yourself: what is my film about and who would want to watch it? The key is to dive into the spirit of your film. Think of a specific type of person who would absolutely love it.

Here’s how the audience identification process worked for our documentary Age of Champions, which tells the story of five competitors up to 100 years old who sprint, leap, and swim for gold at the Senior Olympics. At first, our hypothesis was that “seniors” would be the audience for the film. It was genius; we knew there were 40 million seniors in the US and we thought all of them would love our film. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth. As we found out, most seniors could care less about documentaries, fitness, the Senior Olympics—all of it.

You’ve discovered your true core audience when you’ve found a concrete group of people that jump for joy the moment they hear about your film."

So we drilled down a little further. We thought “seniors who exercise” might be our audience. We took the film on the road to some senior fitness events to test our message. Wrong again—it turned out to be really difficult to pitch the film directly to senior athletes, who were disappointed when they found out we weren’t selling exercise videos.

3. Test your hypothesis with real people

Conduct experiments to test your hypothesis. This means actually getting your film out into the world and connecting with your potential audience. You might call potential partners on the phone, share your trailer on relevant blogs, or attend a conference in your possible niche. The goal is to get your project in front of real human beings, ask questions, listen, and see if they’re interested. If they’re not overwhelmed with excitement when they see your film, revise your hypothesis, conduct another experiment, and repeat this process until you reach a conclusion.

For Age of Champions, we tried reaching out to nonprofits and businesses in the senior health community. Finally, we hit the bulls-eye. This was our market: senior centers, retirement homes, and senior health companies. They loved the film and wanted to share it with their local communities. After a few conferences and lots of phone conversations with our early customers, we were able to drill down even further.

4. Confirm your hypothesis

You’ll know you’ve discovered your true core audience when you’ve found a concrete group of people that jump for joy the moment they hear about your film. They want to buy a DVD on the spot and can’t wait to share it with their friends. At this point, you can confirm your hypothesis and start moving on to the next step in your film’s lifecycle.

For Age of Champions, we discovered that our core audience was “women, age 40-65, working full-time in senior health organizations.” So, in the span of a few weeks, we went from thinking our audience was 40 million seniors to a concrete, specific, identifiable group of senior health professionals. We designed our entire distribution strategy around this insight and eventually did more than $1 million in sales directly to this audience.

5. Start building your mailing list

After you’ve identified your audience, it's important to stay in touch and start building your network. You’ll want to set up an email marketing service like Mailchimp so you can easily capture and manage subscriber email addresses. One you've built up your mailing list, send your followers meaningful, relevant updates regularly (monthly or quarterly is probably enough). You want your network to feel like they have a relationship with you so they'll remember who you are and will be willing to help when you need it.

One tip to build your mailing list more quickly is to create a pop-up or scroll box with a compelling “bribe” for your audience. You can offer exclusive information about your film or some content that your audience would find valuable enough to give you their email address in exchange. For Age of Champions, we offered to let people watch the first 20 minutes of the film for free, which encouraged thousands of people to sign up for our mailing list."

Find an Audience For Your Film in 5 Simple Steps Christopher Rufo May 04, 2017, https://nofilmschool.com/2017/05/find-audience-your-film-5-simple-steps

Build a Press Kit and Festival Strategy

Once you have a strong cut of your film, develop an Electronic Press Kit (EPK) with these assets:

• High-quality stills

• A short synopsis and logline

• Director’s statement

• Cast and crew bios

• Trailer

Outline a film festival strategy. The big deal festivals like Sundance, TIFF, or SXSW offer visibility and industry networking, but regional and genre-specific festivals often provide a more targeted audience.

“If you can't hire a publicist, you will need to become a publicist. And you will need to create a press kit. A press kit is typically a document that tells the media what your movie is about and why their audiences should care.

Here are some things you'll want to include as you create a press kit:

1.Cover sheet: The cover sheet is the top sheet that grabs everyone's attention and promotes the hook of your movie. In some ways, it's' sort of like a mini-poster that includes the title, contact info, some good quotes from previous reviews, the same cast and crew credits from the poster, and mention of any film festival awards you have won.

2. Synopsis: You should already have a pretty solid synopsis. If you do, just cut and paste it into the press kit. If not, you'll need one. So write it. Some people add action photos from the movie to this page. Doing this is okay, as long as the images look good.

3. Photos: Get some journalist friends to check out your production photos. Pick a few high-resolution images that seem incredibly interesting and do an excellent job of making people want to see the movie. Please include them in the kit.

4. Cast and Crew: This is pretty simple. Create bios for the main cast and crew and include them on the page next to a miniature headshot.

5. Anecdotes: This is the story of how the film got made. For this, you can write about memorable moments, such as when the camera broke 25 times after traffic delayed the first day of shooting for 13 hours and the lead actor caught fire.

6. Reviews: Include them here if you have any good reviews.

7. Credits: This page is devoted to the entire cast and crew credits.” HOW TO CREATE A PRESS KIT FOR YOUR INDIE MOVIE, December 12, 2022 by Tom Malloy, https://www.filmmakingstuff.com/how-to-create-a-press-kit-for-your-indie-movie/

Bonus: Awards and festival laurels can significantly boost your film’s marketability. Everyone wants to see those on the posters.

Master Your Online Presence

Your film’s website and social media are your marketing headquarters. Use them to release teasers, run countdowns to special events (like premieres), and share stories about the making of the film.

Instagram and TikTok are great for visually-driven marketing. Build a community by engaging with fans, answering questions, and posting regularly.

“1. Define Clear Objectives

Before launching a social media campaign, it’s essential to establish clear goals.

Objectives might include:

• Raising awareness: Introducing the film to potential audiences.

• Building a community: Connecting with fans and fostering a loyal following.

• Driving ticket sales or streams: Converting engagement into revenue.

• Attracting distributors: Demonstrating market potential to secure distribution deals.

Example: “The Blair Witch Project”

One of the earliest examples of a successful social media-like campaign (before social media was mainstream) was The Blair Witch Project. The filmmakers used a website and forums to create intrigue, treating the film as if it were based on real events. This strategy blurred the lines between reality and fiction, fuelling word-of-mouth and turning a $60,000 indie film into a $248 million phenomenon. The European premiere was at Raindance. It was a truly mind-blowing experience.

2. Identify Target Audiences

Understanding your target demographic is crucial. This includes:

• Age and interests: Who is most likely to watch the film? (e.g., young adults for horror or Gen X for nostalgia-driven stories).

• Platforms: Identify where this audience spends their time online. Instagram and TikTok often attract younger users, while Facebook and Twitter are better for older demographics or cinephile communities.

Example: “Lady Bird”

The social media campaign for Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird focused on themes of coming-of-age and personal growth, appealing to younger viewers and women. The film’s accounts shared relatable quotes, scenes, and aesthetics on Instagram, where its target audience already engaged with similar content.

3. Develop a Consistent Brand Voice

The tone and voice of your social media presence should align with the film’s themes and genre. This ensures consistency and reinforces the film’s identity.

Tactical Steps:

• For a comedy: Use humor, memes, and engaging content that matches the light-hearted tone of the film.

• For a drama: Share emotional, thought-provoking posts or behind-the-scenes moments.

• For a thriller: Focus on suspense, cryptic messages, and teaser visuals.

Example: “Parasite”

The campaign for Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite used an enigmatic and sophisticated tone across platforms, reflecting the film’s themes of class and intrigue. Striking visuals and cryptic captions piqued curiosity, drawing audiences to theatres.

4. Create a Content Calendar

Planning and consistency are critical for maintaining audience interest. A content calendar allows filmmakers to strategically time posts, creating a steady flow of engagement throughout the production, release, and post-release phases.

Content Types:

• Pre-release: Teasers, posters, behind-the-scenes videos, cast interviews, and countdowns.

• Release: Announcements of premiere dates, theatre locations, or streaming platforms.

• Post-release: Audience reactions, reviews, fan art, and awards recognition.

Example: “A Ghost Story”

David Lowery’s A Ghost Story created an engaging Instagram calendar. Pre-release, it teased the film’s unique visuals (a ghost under a sheet) and shared behind-the-scenes images. After the release, the campaign focused on critical acclaim and audience testimonials.

5. Leverage Teasers and Trailers

High-quality trailers and teaser clips are essential for grabbing attention. Social media platforms favour video content, and sharing dynamic, short-form videos can help create buzz.

Tips:

• Edit platform-specific cuts of trailers (e.g., under 60 seconds for Instagram).

• Use captions and subtitles to make videos accessible.

• Tease storylines without giving too much away.

Example: “Get Out”

Jordan Peele’s Get Out built an impactful campaign by sharing eerie and intriguing trailers on Twitter and YouTube. Clips highlighted the film’s unique premise, creating immediate curiosity and sparking conversations about its themes.

6. Engage with the Audience

Interaction is the lifeblood of social media. Responding to comments, sharing fan content, and running interactive campaigns foster a sense of community.

Strategies:

• Polls and Q&A sessions: Use Instagram Stories or Twitter polls to engage with fans.

• User-generated content (UGC): Encourage fans to share posts, memes, or artwork inspired by the film.

• Contests: Offer exclusive rewards (like signed posters or premiere tickets) for fan engagement.

Example: “The Babadook”

This horror indie film became a viral sensation when fans embraced its titular character as a meme. The film’s creators joined the conversation, sharing and responding to fan content, which amplified its reach.

7. Collaborate with Influencers

Partnering with influencers in the film or entertainment space can help amplify your reach. Micro-influencers (10,000–100,000 followers) often have highly engaged communities, making them cost-effective partners for indie films.

Tips:

• Offer influencers early access to the film for reviews or previews.

• Collaborate on creative content, such as TikTok skits or Instagram Reels inspired by the film.

Example: “Eighth Grade”

Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade collaborated with YouTube creators who aligned with its teenage coming-of-age theme. This partnership helped the film reach younger audiences who might not have discovered it otherwise.

8. Use Paid Advertising Strategically

While organic reach is valuable, targeted paid campaigns can ensure your content reaches the right people. Social media platforms offer cost-effective options for filmmakers with limited budgets.

Strategies:

• Use Facebook Ads Manager or Google Ads to target specific demographics based on interests, location, and behaviours.

• Promote key posts, such as the trailer or a critical release announcement.

Example: “Moonlight”

Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight used a mix of organic and paid strategies, including geotargeted ads promoting screenings in cities with diverse audiences. The film’s emotional trailer was also strategically boosted to maximise visibility.

9. Embrace Platform-Specific Strategies

Each platform has unique features and user behaviours. Tailor content to fit the strengths of each.

Platform Breakdown:

• Instagram: Use Stories, Reels, and carousel posts for visually appealing content.

• Twitter: Focus on concise updates, hashtags, and engaging in trending conversations.

• TikTok: Create short, creative videos highlighting the film’s tone or characters.

• Facebook: Use event pages for premieres and long-form posts for behind-the-scenes insights.

• YouTube: Share trailers, cast interviews, and behind-the-scenes vlogs.

Example: “Hereditary”

Ari Aster’s Hereditary utilised TikTok and Instagram to share creepy, atmospheric clips that resonated with horror fans. Twitter was used for critical reviews and conversations with cinephiles.

10. Monitor and Adapt Using Analytics

Analytics tools can help you track performance and refine your strategy. Monitor metrics such as:

• Engagement rates (likes, comments, shares).

• Follower growth.

• Click-through rates to ticketing or streaming platforms.

Tools:

• Native analytics: Instagram Insights, Twitter Analytics, and Facebook Insights.

• Third-party tools: Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social.

Example: “The Farewell”

• Lulu Wang’s The Farewell adapted its social strategy based on audience engagement. The team leaned into personal anecdotes from Wang and the cast, which resonated well with followers.” Structuring a Social Media Presence for an Independent Film, Posted on January 4, 2025

By Elliot Grove

https://raindance.org/structuring-a-social-media-presence-for-an-independent-film/

Think About Distribution Options

There are three primary distribution paths:

• Traditional Distribution: Secure a distributor who handles marketing, sales, and delivery. This route is competitive but can lead to theatrical releases or cable/network deals.

• Hybrid Distribution: Partner with a service that helps you negotiate distribution while retaining some rights or marketing control.

• Self-Distribution: Platforms like Vimeo on Demand, Amazon Prime Video Direct, or your own website allow you to sell or stream directly to audiences.

Every option has trade-offs in terms of reach, control, and revenue. Think about hiring a sales agent if you’re navigating international markets or larger deals.

Where to get more information: No Film School has so much information on really any aspect of filmmaking. Check them out here- https://nofilmschool.com/real-talk-on-film-finance-distribution-and-pre-sales

Two ways to distribute that I haven’t mentioned yet:

“Hiring an Aggregator

Another way to place your film on streaming platforms—with more options beyond just Amazon—is to hire an aggregator. An aggregator is essentially a media company that has relationships with streaming platforms, such as Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, Google Play, The Roku Channel, Freevee, etc., and, for a fee, can encode and deliver your film to whichever platforms have chosen to accept it. Fees often vary based on how many platforms you want the aggregator to pitch on your behalf, and how much encoding work needs to be done to deliver your film.

What’s great about aggregators is that they can make sure that your film is delivered properly, in the right specs for each specific platform, as opposed to self-distribution on Prime, YouTube, or Vimeo, where you must make sure you adhere to the specs of each platform as you upload your film.

Each platform has different requirements, from the aspect ratio of your video and photo files, to what kind of assets (posters, movie stills, promotional images, etc.) they want, to what kind of metadata and captioning files you’re required to provide. So, if you’re not technically inclined in that arena, hiring an aggregator can be helpful in getting your film delivered without the massive headache. Apple has a list of accepted aggregators here, and Google Play has one here.

Four-walling Your Film

If seeing your indie film up on the big screen is your dream, then you may want to consider “four-walling” your film. Four-walling is essentially paying to rent out a movie theater (four walls) for a period of time in order to exhibit your film. Depending on the deal you strike with the exhibitor, you may be able to collect all of your box office revenue, while the theater usually gets to keep sales revenue from popcorn and concessions.

To four-wall your film, viable options might be contacting local independent or art house theaters and asking if your film can be exhibited, or renting out theater space from chains, like Landmark Theaters or Laemmle Theaters, that cater to independent filmmakers. You can even qualify for Academy Awards consideration if you four-wall according to the Academy’s specifications. Four-wall distribution can be expensive, and therefore a bit of a financial risk, but it can be worth it, depending on your goals as a filmmaker and how much of an audience you know you can bring in.” TRUE INDIE: A Guide to Indie Film Distribution in 2023, REBECCA NORRIS RESNICK, Published Apr 7, 2023 7:00 PM PDT, https://scriptmag.com/true-indie/a-guide-to-indie-film-distribution-in-2023

Market Beyond the Screen

Merchandise, soundtrack releases, and behind-the-scenes content can extend the life of your film and generate additional income. Consider hosting special screenings with Q&As, submitting your film to educational markets, or creating a limited series podcast companion.

Measure, Adjust, Repeat

Track engagement data from your trailers, website traffic, and social media interactions. Use email blast performance information, ad performance, and audience feedback to refine your tactics. Marketing is an evolution. Be ready to pivot based on results.

And Finally

Marketing and selling a feature-length film requires the same level of creativity and strategy as making the film did. The earlier you start, the better chance you have of turning your movie into a thing that people want and are willing to pay to see.

EDIT

On a personal note, I've decided to do a shorts series called Rappin' With Delores.

It will be a hodgepodge of adventures, tips and interviews with me as my Delores character in Worker Bees (My upcoming Feature Length Film). There will also be an impromptu, probably terrible, rap at the end of each episode with me and my guest(s).

I'll use the series to not only market what I'm doing, but also what other people are doing. Then I'll post to Youtube and all of my social media sites. The first installment will be up for viewing shortly!