THE MOVIES ARE THERE

THE SLAM EDITORIAL

BY PETER BAXTER

The Ankler recently reported that distributors are hungry. After years of hearing there were too many movies, too many filmmakers and too much content, it’s good news to hear buyers say they want more. But are we running out of movies, or running out of ways to get them to audiences?

Billy Ray Brewton, founder and CEO of Antenna Releasing, recently told me that, “movies are in fact abundant,” and, “there is something for everyone.” That’s not hard to believe given the nearly 10,000 submissions to Slamdance ’27.

Bill Vergos, head of digital film distribution at Magenta Light Studios who also heads the company’s Magenta Edge Films label, agrees. “After more than 16 years in independent film distribution, I can tell you there’s no shortage of great independent films or talented filmmakers. I see it firsthand at festivals like Slamdance, Dances With Films, SXSW and Fantastic Fest. The challenge isn’t finding the movies. It’s creating more opportunities for those films to be discovered, supported and connected with audiences.”

Brewton attacks the film industry’s obsession with evergreen films. “If I hear that adjective one more time I am going to scream. What is evergreen for one might be autumn for another.” When a film doesn’t fit the industry’s formula, the filmmaker often takes the blame. Brewton says, “filmmakers are not the problem. It’s the system.” 

Independent film once had a simpler equation: make a movie, get it seen, find an audience and create enough value to make the next movie. That system has been steadily dismantled. Theatrical became harder. DVD disappeared. Pay TV contracted. Streaming changed the economics of acquisition without replacing the revenue that vanished. Production and marketing costs rose and finding an audience became almost as difficult as making the movie.

Vergos remains optimistic. “We have to be realistic about budgets, marketing and finding the right audience for each film, but that shouldn’t stop us from taking chances on original voices or finding new ways to bring the stories to audiences.” If distributors are hungry for films, how do we create more opportunities to get those films seen?

For decades, independent films had multiple routes to an audience. A small movie didn’t have to become a hit on opening weekend. It could play festivals, find a specialized theatrical audience, move to television, sell internationally and build a following over time. That long tail mattered. It helped filmmakers take risks, encouraged investment in smaller films and gave directors a chance to make another movie.

Today, filmmakers are finding their own financing, working with smaller budgets and experimenting with distribution. Much of this happens outside traditional channels. The question now is whether the rest of the industry is willing to meet them halfway.

Brewton is game. Antenna Releasing has acquired seven titles that premiered at Slamdance over the past three years, with two more anticipated. Antenna can’t take on every film it wants, but it’s finding opportunities. That’s a very different problem from a shortage of films.

Vergos has his own example. “Some of the most exciting films I’ve discovered have come from first-time filmmakers working with limited resources but extraordinary creativity and vision. Take Lockjaw, which I discovered at Slamdance. Sabrina Greco shot her debut feature in just 11 days, and I watched a packed theater fall in love with it. We acquired the film and took it on a month-long theatrical roadshow across five cities before its digital release.”

Slamdance began with that same idea. We weren’t trying to build another institution. We were trying to create a place for filmmakers who couldn’t—or didn’t want to—wait for permission. When the existing system didn’t work for them, we tried something else.

A successful acquisition or theatrical run doesn’t solve the larger problem. How then, do we help audiences discover films in the first place, and how do we keep those relationships alive beyond a single screening? 

That’s the question producer Ted Hope and his NonDē collaborators are asking.

Their answer is to build a filmmaker-led culture in which artists are less dependent on any one studio, streamer or institution to sustain their careers. Hope describes the goal as “shifting responsibility back toward artists, audiences and the communities that support them.”

That means thinking beyond getting a film made or finding a distributor. How does a filmmaker build an audience? How does that relationship continue after a festival or theatrical run? And how does it help make the next film possible?

Independence, or “non-dependence” shouldn’t mean leaving filmmakers to do everything themselves. It should mean more choices, shared resources and connections that last longer than a single release. Filmmakers need ways to reach audiences, but they shouldn’t have to carry all the risk of distribution, marketing and exhibition on their own. 

Meeting that demand requires more than acquisitions. We need to create more ways for films to reach audiences. Expand financing and production incentives. Rebuild specialized theatrical distribution. Support microcinemas and alternative exhibition. Make festivals places where audiences discover new ideas and voices—not simply marketplaces for finished films. We also need ways to nurture filmmakers over time and help them build sustainable careers.

Vergos says he’s “never viewed independent films as simply content to fill a pipeline. They’re stories, visions and voices that deserve to be experienced. Independent film has always been about creativity, courage and community and I believe the future is incredibly bright if we continue to champion those values.” The business has to work, but a film’s value can’t be measured only by how easily it fits an existing distribution plan. 

Brewton says he “can’t wait for the gatekeepers to be destroyed.” Maybe we don’t need to destroy every existing institution but we do need more imagination, more risk-taking and more room for films that don’t fit the usual expectations.

Sometimes the opportunity is in finding a different audience or a different way of bringing people together around the work. That might happen in a theater, at a festival, through a community, on a phone or on a platform that hasn’t been invented yet. We too often decide what a film is worth before giving people a chance to see it.

Hope sees the current system failing to create pathways for discovering films and connecting people around them. Even as someone who watches close to 300 movies a year, he finds films that he wants to see are slipping past without enough time to build momentum or generate meaningful discussion. Streaming promised immediate access, but as Hope points out, “we’re still looking for something unique and weirdly wonderful that algorithms can’t predict. The challenge is to move beyond simply turning potential customers into viewers and start turning audience into community and community into collaborators. We’ve reduced cinema-going to a transaction when we should be restoring the transformative alchemy it truly is.”

Brewton is finding films worth taking a chance on. Vergos is showing what can happen when a distributor connects a film with an audience. Hope is working out how those audiences can become communities that help sustain the next generation of filmmakers.

These are different approaches to the same problem. We don’t just need more buyers or more platforms. We need more ways for people to discover films, gather around them and help make the next ones possible.

The movies are there. The question is whether we’re willing to build a different system that gives them a chance to find their audience and gives the people who make them a reason to keep going.