For years, festivals have struggled to figure out how to raise awareness of titles that may generate buzz or garner favorable reviews, but ultimately don’t see a wider release.

A lot of time and care is spent selecting a festival program, so the organizers and programmers do want to see these films succeed because it benefits not only the filmmakers and the industry, but the festival brand as well. An interesting article in indieWire details the initiatives by festivals to start distributing films on a longer term basis. This would be a significant expansion of most festivals’ year long programs and expand their reach beyond the dates of the actual event. Digital platforms will give the festivals flexibility in delivering a strong slate of titles to a greater audience who can’t necessarily make it to the screenings.

With theatrical runs becoming a rare occasion, it is perfectly logical that a distribution strategy would be focused around film festivals, but this doesn’t really represent a major upheaval: the traditional release strategy of having a theatrical run followed by a home video and digital release remains intact.  The key difference here is that instead of festivals traditionally acting as a conduit between the filmmakers and distributors, they are going to take the films themselves under their wing. This is  just a more formalized approach to shepherding the films that don’t attract distribution deals. It will be interesting to see if a more formal release strategy with festival branding will allow these films to make a dent in an already overcrowded marketplace.