Something Is In The Air?

Do I smell something changing? Links & Ponders 9/10

Everyone’s headed to see our film INVISIBLE NATION at festivals this fall!

Ultimately with Toronto having started, we should see how acquisitions play out. I think buyers would be wise to stock up, particularly on fiction now. I am betting the strike will go into the new year.  After TIFF, new fiction films will be one year away for distributors whether they fund them or acquire them. They better get ‘em while they can. TIFF is the festival for fiction but then it is a drought until January. That means starting in October the race is on for which platform can snatch up the most docs, both completed and in in process. That sure would be a nice time after the collapse of the doc market this past year, wouldn’t it?

Of all the distributors, only Netflix seems to have recognized it makes sense to send all AMPAS members notification/invites to all their films at all the major fall festivals – no matter how far away they are from where ever we may be. Are they smarter than everyone else? Or just the only one that plays to win? I mean “pays”. 10 minutes after I posted this thought on the Substack chat, I got a similar invite from GKids for the new Miyazake in TIFF, so they are smart too.  David Poland quickly pointed out in the chat, that Netflix is the one streamer that doesn’t seem to care about the theatrical release, so they can put all their resources behind festivals, so….

Perhaps I should have taken GKids offer on the Miyazake tickets considering how much they are going for via Ticketmaster’s Scalper App.  Maybe that could be someone’s side hustle, the secondary market on Film Festival tickets. Convine the fest to hold back half the tickets at the fest, so it “looks” like they sold out fast, and then only release the remaining tickets  on the cheater apps and split the profits with the….well, probably no one, but the filmmakers would be nice. What’s not so nice is the infection of legalized ticket scalping at the film festival level is real and happening now. I guess TIFF is the first casualty. It’s not as if most festivals weren’t already bastions of privilege and elitism to begin with.  Anyone want to start the “WorkingPersons’ Film Festival”?

It rarely is just one thing anyone of us can blame for any shitty situation, and the FKATheFilmBiz is the same.  And of course as with everything, it is complicated. Take Streaming. There’s the unseen consequences. And the original hopes. And the nightmare it’s become. But it still has some good points. You know that joke about the guy who’s wife thinks she’s a chicken, but he’s afraid to confront her because he needs the eggs. Most of us aren’t afraid to confront, but yeah we too need the eggs. But I sense a growing frustration. The IAMAHAIANGTTIAM wave is rising. For every day the Strikes go on we will see a wave of increased militancy. The AMPTC should settle fast. The longer it goes on, the worse it will get for them and their kind. Ha! And I look forward to writing more about it later.

One clue is that finally the illness that is