Distribution

Indian Cinema, often loosely defined as ‘Bollywood,’ has much more to it than meets the eye. The films in India are produced in over 20 languages and an equal number of dialects. However, the mainstream cinema of Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu languages is generally considered financially viable and offers great opportunities. This millennium has seen Indian Feature Films and even web series reaching foreign shores. We began this experiment when we took Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film Devdas and its st...

Happy Wednesday, Stage 32 Community!   Since 2011, the Stage 32 team has been working tirelessly to help you stay connected, creative, motivated, and informed. As always, we are committed to bringing you networking opportunities, education and mentoring from top-level industry executives and professionals, and access to decision-makers around the globe all from the comfort of your own home. Recently, our fearless leader and CEO Richard "RB" Botto hosted an "Ask Me Anything": State of the Indus...

I am a Distributor turned Filmmaker. I have a finance degree and a law degree and I spent the first 22 years of my film career in Distribution. Then I got the bug to become creative. I have since made and successfully self-distributed 7 feature films, 3 of which are presently airing on Netflix worldwide. I help hundreds of indie filmmakers and the initial conversation usually goes like this: Jeff to Filmmaker: “You need to think about distribution BEFORE you make your movie because it could...

About twenty years ago, the Zoie Films Festival launched one of the first online film festivals to showcase films, animations, and documentaries from around the world. The films were streamed online and soon after, Zoie Films was streaming films and animations via cell phones. Pssst.. this was before smartphones and flip phones were the choice of most consumers. Naturally, the streaming was wonky. The future is here and it’s all about VOICE, as in “hands-free, voice-activated, and data-driven”...

Hello Creative Army! Read any of the trades right now and our industry is in a rapid state of change. The entire Stage 32 team is on the phone every day to keep their fingers on the pulse of what's happening. It's an exciting time for you as a content creator - whether you work in film, television, or digital - and it's equally exciting for content makers because the world has opened wide to international voices traveling beyond borders. We are seeing more and more diverse and international...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! Have you had a creative weekend so far? I have some content here for you that is sure to get the creative juices flowing, so grab your coffee, and let's dive in. First up, we're getting inspired with this video from British Vogue, interviewing tons of household name actors on how they view the industry and their careers. I think one of the most important questions asked was when the person felt they had "made it." For many of them, they never feel like they have,...

Next week, I’m headed to Park City for my tenth Sundance Film Festival. As I think about how to prepare for this year’s edition, especially since the last two have taken place on my couch, I’m particularly excited about seeing folks in person. As the Executive Director of the Film Festival Alliance, I’ll be focused on seeing our members and hearing from them about their plans for the upcoming year. I’ll also try to squeeze in as many films as I can (the most I’ve ever seen is 25 in a week!). W...

I’ve always liked challenges while creating stories. In my children's book, TONY'S BUTTERFLIES, I was challenged to create a book about the sensitive subject of death while keeping it kid friendly. After that book, I wanted to tackle the subject of mental health since it’s a personal subject for me. The challenge of trying to tell a story about mental health in a three-and-a-half-minute short seemed like a difficult story that would be fun to create. So I chose the next project: THE HAPPY STATUE...

A high school visit with my mother to Spelman College, a Historically Black College (HBCU) and part of the Atlanta University Center (AUC), was what brought me to Atlanta, Georgia, for the first time. We flew in from my hometown of Philadelphia, aka the “City of Brotherly Love,” and immediately realized we had left the old world behind. Is that a SUBWAY… in the AIRPORT? Are you kidding me?? This is awesome! I felt like an extra on Battlestar Galactica or Logan’s Run (look it up.) The campus was...

Stage 32’s nearly million members are worldwide, so we couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that Stage 32 is now the Official Education Partner of the UK’s international trade event, FOCUS. FOCUS is the only UK trade event where nearly 3,000 attendees can meet with content makers and facilitators from over 100 countries, attracting thousands of production professionals from across the creative screen industries – including film, TV, advertising, animation, and gaming. FOCUS offers filming...