Best in Fest: Experts on Where (& How) to Sell an Indie Film Now
Top dealmakers from CAA and WME talk Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, the new Toronto market, which festivals you can't miss (and can) and rules of a changed market
Ashley Cullins writes about agents, lawyers and dealmakers for paid subscribers. She recently covered the fight against the “free work” of if-come deals; the New Rules of Film Finance; and the Pixar of AI signing up stars. You can reach her at ashley@theankler.com
“Oh shit!” As Together, the body-horror comedy starring and produced by Alison Brie and Dave Franco, made its Sundance premiere at its Jan. 27 screening, the audience couldn’t help but shriek profanities at the screen during the film’s shocking set pieces.
Then came the real “Oh shit!” moment: Selling the movie.
“We closed a monster deal for the movie Together after its premiere,” says WME Independent co-head Deborah McIntosh, whose team handled the sale to Neon for a figure reportedly in the high-teen millions. “It was 48 hours of all-night bidding war. So, a little torturous.”
It’s been both a blink and a lifetime since frenzied bidding wars at the Sundance Film Festival were more the norm and sparked these kind of headlines:
“Sundance: ‘Birth of a Nation’ Sets Record With $17.5M Sale to Fox Searchlight”
“Amazon Wins ‘The Big Sick’ Bidding War With $12 Million Buy”
“‘Palm Springs’ Breaks Sundance Record for Biggest Sale Ever — by 69 Cents”
“Apple pays a record $25 million for ‘Coda’ film at Sundance”
Four years since that Coda sale, its record stands unthreatened. Sundance was eerily quiet before Together’s acquisition a week into the festival, followed by Netflix buying the Denis Johnson adaptation Train Dreams.
McIntosh’s experience is one part throwback and another part harbinger of how dealmakers now think about buying indie projects at film festivals. Frankfurt Kurnit partner Hayden Goldblatt, who reps producers, financiers and indie distributors, tells me that before the pandemic, he was involved in at least three marathon negotiations in Sundance condos — including a 9-hour slog opposite Searchlight. “Since then,” he tells me, “I have not been involved in any in-person negotiations at any of the festivals. They tend to happen on the plane home or in the weeks after the festivals.” (Though he personally skipped Park City this year, his firm sent a team of 10 people.)
Covid, constricting budgets, rising travel costs and an industry increasingly comfortable with Zoom and other tech tools that don’t require in-person meetings have all contributed to Hollywood dealmakers feeling like they don’t really need to have the same kind of boots on the ground at festivals these days. “I used to go to Sundance all the time,” says Bob Darwell, head of global media at Sheppard Mullin, who was in South Africa during Sundance when I caught up with him — just about as far as you can get from Utah.
Now? “I see clients sending smaller teams to these festivals than before. I'd say half the size of the team would go, or even a little bit less,” he says. “The role of film festivals is important, but I think what they bring to [the ecosystem] is a little bit different now than that market frenzy.”
With Sundance just behind us and the Berlinale kicking off next week, I talked to lawyers, execs and sales agents including Roeg Sutherland and Benjamin Kramer from CAA Media Finance, Scott Shooman from AMC Networks Film Group and Cold Iron Pictures CEO Miranda Bailey about the new realities of indie dealmaking. What follows is a cheat sheet on where you need to be, what you need to know — and who you should be watching as we continue through the 2025 festival season and beyond.
In this issue, you’ll learn from the experts:
How long it now might take to sell a movie post-festival
What a $3M sale from yesteryear might sell for today — and the kind of purchase prices you should really expect at all price ranges
The after-effects on sales since Netflix and Amazon warped the market
Three film fests dealmakers never miss and you shouldn’t either
Why cultivating foreign partnerships is now top of festival to-do lists
The alternative theatrical windows for indies now being negotiated
The “healthy tension” between theatrical and film’s pay-one window
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