A few years ago, David Wilkinson got in touch to ask for advice on his crowdfunding campaign. One of the topics he wanted to chat about was the ‘cost’ of offering a “Thanks” credit to his backers.

When I published my first piece on standing ovations at film festivals a few weeks ago, I expected it to be a niche topic. Tricia Tuttle, the director of the Berlinale, had asked whether applause ...

Out of the full dataset, 9,894 festivals (93.8%) placed no restrictions at all. Only 26 festivals required a world premiere, ...

This article is part of my ‘Big Ideas’ series, in which I explore the evolving landscape of the film industry. Each instalment combines data, research, and analysis to go deep on a trend, idea or case ...

I often get asked if there is a formula for making money with movies. The short answer is that there isn’t one, and even if there were, it would soon stop working due to audience fatigue. There are ...

I have been asked for years whether “Go Woke, Go Broke” is true for movies. So it was a real honour to be able to give the keynote today at the Zurich Summit and answer the question. Over the last few ...

Last week in an article about how long your film needs to be to be accepted into film festivals, I mentioned in passing that a 90-second short film was eligible at nine out of ten film festivals I ...

Colour is one of the quickest ways a poster can tell you what kind of film it’s selling. Before you’ve read the title or registered the actors, your brain has already clocked the palette and filed it ...

This is final part of my collaboration with Screendollars in which we spoke to 246 cinema owners and exhibition-affiliated film professionals. We quizzed them on a range of topics, and their answers ...

This is part two of my collaboration with Screendollars in which we spoke to 246 cinema owners and film professionals affiliated with exhibitors. We quizzed them on a range of topics, and their ...

An oft-repeated mantra among film distribution professionals is “Drama is not a genre”. By that, they don’t mean that films cannot be dramatic, nor that there are not films you could call “a drama”.