Indie movie distribution. Seems like a unicorn: you want to believe it’s a real thing, but you’re not sure how to get it. That’s how I felt a couple years ago.

Let me back up first.

You may remember me from a bunch of guest blogs on here in 2016.

I documented everything from trying to find money for my movie, Wandering Off, to getting the crew, scheduling, all the way through to after we wrapped, and what the experience was like.

Now onto the distribution…

I was fortunate enough to talk to a couple filmmakers who had gone through the process of making their first feature and getting it out, and to learn how they did it.

I kept hearing about AFM and decided to look into it. For those who don’t know, AFM is the American Film Market.

According to their website:

“The American Film Market is the world’s largest motion picture business event. Over 7,000 industry leaders converge in Santa Monica for eight days of deal-making, screenings, conferences, networking and parties. Participants come from more than 80 countries and include acquisition and development executives, agents, attorneys, directors, distributors, festival directors, financiers, film commissioners, producers, writers, the world’s press and all those who provide services to the motion picture industry.”

I heard you don’t know how to fully describe it unless you’re there, and never has there been a truer statement.

(Now, I can only speak to the distribution side of the Market, as that’s what we went for. While there are other things to go there for, I didn’t experience that, so I won’t pretend to know if that’s similar or different to what I was there for).

Prepping for AFM

About a month before heading to AFM, I contacted all the distribution companies that fit what our movie was.

Every company that goes to the Market lists what they’re looking for, so although time consuming, it’s an easy process to go through and see who fits.