CanadianFilmMaker - International Sales

International Sales

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If your movie has theatrical potential, and even if it’s not an art house film, your sales agent will probably try to secure a festival launch at Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance or a secondary festival well suited to the movie. Even genre films with theatrical potential are increasingly being submitted to and launched at festivals. These days, very few theatrical movies debut in markets.

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For more information on International Festivals see our Resources section on Doing Business Internationally .

Before the festival or market, your sales agent will set up appointments with all the key buyers, inform those buyers of screening times, and send marketing/advertising materials. A lot of this work is done electronically. If it’s a pure market like AFM, or a mixed market/festival like Cannes and Berlin, the sales agent will book screening times. Sales agents have attempted to set up unofficial screenings during the Toronto Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival, but this strategy has had mixed results.

During the market, the sales agent will encourage the buyers to view the film and try to induce them to purchase. If your movie is very popular the sales agent may have competing offers – a bidding war.

When and how to find a sales agent
Movies can be sold as finished products or pre-sold after packaging but prior to shooting. When to find an agent depends on when you think your movie is in a position to attract sales.

If you have a very strong package at a script stage, you may want to secure a sales agent at that point to pre-sell the movie. In this case the sales agent will give out scripts and information on elements to distributors and try to induce them to purchase prior to production. With pre-sold movies, the minimum guarantees may become part of the production financing.

Now, how do you find a sales agent?

Start by identifying what kind of film you have made or will make. Where international markets are concerned, is it mainstream, art house, genre, direct to video, or really a television movie?
Then look at the trade papers and see what sales agency suits your kind of movie. If you have a 55-minute documentary on opera, don’t approach a seller who specializes in U.S. indie feature comedies – it wastes the seller’s time and your own.
Once you have determined the right place for you, contact the acquisitions executive for that sales agency. (Yes, sales agents buy as well as sell.) Find out if they are accepting submissions, and send in your screener or script.
You might also want to find a sales agent by entering a film festival. If the movie is strong enough, this strategy sometimes works with Toronto and almost always works with Sundance.
However, I don’t recommend trying this strategy with any European “A” festival – it would be an expensive waste of your best opportunity to sell your movie. Almost all movies in Cannes and Venice have representation. While this is not as true of Berlin, I still suggest you find a sales agent if your movie is invited to Berlin.

Love your sales agent

This is back breaking work. Remember that your sales agent is selling to very savvy people in every country in the world, all with different audiences and cultural biases. It’s a tough market out there. Ever since I have been in the business, the economics of distributing independent features have been fragile. Your sales agent has to strategize, market, sell, contract and deliver. It’s a big job and everything you can do, from having good stills and a press kit, to having good legal deliverables helps to make the job a little bit easier.

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