By Jesús Silva

Marking the 10th year of collaboration between Europa Distribution and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the international association of independent film publishers and distributors hosted a new edition of the Film Distribution Innovation Hub in 2024 (2-5 July). This professional programme, organised in partnership with the KVIFF, took place within the framework of the renowned Czech gathering. The initiative comprised a public showcase and a private session for distributors, featuring a range of innovative tools with potential uses for their businesses, particularly in terms of reaching new audiences, improving digital marketing, and optimising internal management. These tools covered a wide spectrum, from AI analysis and anthropological research for tailored marketing campaigns to comprehensive business tools and even software and apps for enhancing accessibility and inclusion.

Moderated by journalist and consultant Michael Gubbins, the public event unfolded at the Workshop Stage of the Imperial Spa in Karlovy Vary on 3 July, where representatives from various tech companies presented a set of innovative tools aimed at film publishers. “What becomes clear every year is that distributors are innovators by nature. They must be because the world changes, films change, and the needs of audiences change. […] Today, we are going to see technology providers and services that are very much aligned with the needs of distribution. We will welcome these panellists and have a broader discussion as we go on about some of the core issues they raise”, as introduced by Gubbins, before inviting the speakers to take the floor.

First up was Niels Alberg Nielsen, co-founder and CEO of Publikum, a Danish audience research service that combines AI analysis with anthropological insights, aiming at “using data to create a buzz and spark emotions” around a film. This consulting service, launched four years ago, follows a two-step methodology. First, they employ a data-scraping tool to capture the zeitgeist surrounding a particular theme in a project. “We have an external platform, which is basically a social listening device, where we scrape data from a certain territory that we want to have insight into on how they talk about [a certain topic]”, he explained. This approach allows them to zoom into social media and news conversations to explore how people feel about a subject, the different words they use, and how these are interconnected. Publikum then analyses these connections, seeking patterns in how people perceive a specific phenomenon, how it sparks attention, evokes emotions, and how it might be relevant to the story development, distribution strategy, or market positioning of a film. “We always take some of the most interesting conversations that, we think, are relevant for either the story development or later in distribution. […] You can position the film differently according to the narrative you want to place around it”, he claimed.

The second step involves six days of in-depth audience testing, during which participants either review a script or watch a film ready for distribution, depending on the development stage. After gathering initial reactions, they focus on specific aspects of the project, such as characters, core themes, styles, scenes, and pitching strategies. “This is customised every time”, clarified the Danish professional. At the end of the process, they collect final reflections to understand what people are still discussing after a few days, which can inspire word-of-mouth during a campaign. “We get around 500 qualitative reactions every time we run a project, and it’s put into a service where we have anthropologists looking at the different target groups in the various markets and doing a structured analysis of the reactions”, he noted.

Finally, Alberg Nielsen offered an early peek into their “> 6.5 logline” tool, a technology they are currently testing and training. The goal is to suggest a logline with a high likelihood of creating a user rating of 6.5 or higher for the final film. “Why 6.5? It’s because a lot of research shows that if you come across a 6.5 in user rating, it has a strong correlation with market success”, in his own words. Throughout his presentation, he shared case studies of European films they have worked on, such as Sick of Myself by Kristoffer Borgli, The Atomic Soldiers by Morgan Knibbe & Roelof Jan Minneboo, and Kneecap by Rich Peppiatt.

Next up was Alexandre Cerri from France’s Luckytime, an agency that develops digital creative strategies for films and monitors campaign performance for distributors. The company has been involved in marketing for ten years, working with a diverse range of clients, including independent distributors, producers, cinemas, festivals, and video-on-demand platforms. As Digital Strategy Manager, Cerri explained the work methodology and services they have provided over the last decade, which include strategy recommendations to redefine a film’s positioning and target the right audience, creating content for social media and providing community management, creative production (trailers, teasers, interviews), website creation, and specific training for distributors.

“One year ago, we had a reflection with the entire team. We were very proud of the content we created, but we were missing one piece of information: what kind of people are actually going to a cinema and watching a film following our digital campaign?”. In order to bridge this gap, they decided to launch LuckyLab, a series of fully responsive and integrated landing pages for films, which allow them to evaluate what kind of audience is interested in the titles they promote and the ads they create.

These landing pages include all the necessary information about the films (synopsis, cast, awards), along with geolocated showtimes. However, one of the most useful aspects of LuckyLab is its ability to collect data during the campaign and measure all the relevant metrics. “It’s possible for us to take a captive audience and retarget them for other ‘similar’ film campaigns in the future”, remarked Cerri. “We can see the number of visitors, the search of showtimes, the cost of a click. We can also gather social demographic information”, he added. All this data is sent to the distributors and can be later used to optimise their VOD campaigns. On this matter, one of the most important data inputs is the source of traffic. “Sometimes distributors spend a lot of their budget on partnerships, which can be expensive. They always ask us how to track the source of traffic and show them how many people we have redirected from the website”, he asserted.

So far, they have developed more than 200 landing pages (including those for films such as Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet, Un p’tit truc en plus by Artus, The Beast in the Jungle by Patric Chiha, and Un silence by Joachim Lafosse), resulting in 6 million visitors across all the websites. In the next six months, LuckyLab will partner with SCARE (Scénaristes de Cinéma Associés), working with 100 cinemas to test their tracking system and determine how many people convert their visits into ticket bookings.

Mehdi Mimouni, Commercial Director at MovieChainer, also took the stage to present their web service, which provides film industry professionals with a comprehensive suite of business-oriented tools to manage their IP rights. “It’s a one-stop shop for every industry professional, from production, financing, distribution, and sales”. Mimouni began by sharing the story of how the company was born: MovieChainer is a subsidiary of Backup Media Group, which has been financing, producing, and distributing films for the past 20 years. Over time, they accumulated more than 400 titles to manage, leading them to develop an in-house tracking system. They adapted an existing tool originally designed for the gallery art business and then decided to sell it to distributors, sales agents, and other industry players in need of rights management solutions. “That’s why, as beginners in the tech business, we decided to develop all they needed with a tailor-made approach, ending up with a very comprehensive tool”, Mimouni explained. The result is a SaaS-based app that clients can access 24/7 from any browser, laptop, or mobile device.

Mimouni went on to introduce their latest innovation, Connect AI, a research and development tool that uses AI to tackle administrative and repetitive tasks within their system. “AI is about enabling us to be more interoperable with our digital services”, he emphasised. He then delved into some specific features for distributors available through their app, such as contractual data ingestion (where AI can extract key information from a PDF), sales and prospection features (allowing distributors to track commercial opportunities by media and territory), rights management and live avails (enabling the extraction of a database list and the generation of ready-to-send files to buyers), and automated revenue integration (including the ingestion and tracking of different revenue windows).

“Obviously, you already have something that works,” Mimouni said, addressing the distributors present at the showcase. “You are all successful distributors, so you have either an Excel database, an internal tool, or another provider. You have that data somewhere, but getting the data into the system is the real pain point. That’s what we tackled with Connect AI—being able to extract reliable data from contractual or financial documents”, he explained, highlighting the efficiency and cooperative nature of their tool: “It’s a collaborative interface. The more people you put on board, the more efficient it is. It’s 100% flexible because eight years of dedicated development allow us to have a version where you just activate or deactivate features based on your needs”, he pointed out.

Inclusion and accessibility were the main topics of the final presentation by Seneit Debese, a former distributor and founder of Greta & Starks, a Berlin-based company established ten years ago. Aiming to make a meaningful contribution to the film industry, Debese developed an app that offers seven different features for five distinct target groups, all focused on reaching new audiences by enhancing accessibility for people with disabilities. These features include audio descriptions for visually impaired individuals, closed captions for people with hearing disabilities, sound amplification for those using hearing devices, and even sign language displays. The app also provides access to different language versions of a film. Distributors can upload content into their system, allowing users to download the barrier-free version they need on their mobile devices and play it in the cinema, where the app synchronises automatically. “One of the other pillars of our technology is the data”, Debese said, explaining that distributors can access real-time data on their backend, showing how many people watched each version. “You can see the downloads, the sales, the territories”, she remarked.

It is estimated that over 50 million people across Europe have some form of vision or hearing impairment. When adding multilingual individuals, international students, and expats—comprising around another 30 million people—it creates a large pool of potential customers. “You will always win. First of all, you contribute to something great in the world. Second, you increase the audience for your movies”, concluded Debese.

Andreas Schuepbach, Head of Marketing at Greta & Starks, also took the stage to delve deeper into their business model: “We can make all your existing content accessible worldwide. If you have accessibility files and different language versions, you can decide on which distribution channels you want to make the content accessible through our site, at which time, and in which countries”, he outlined. Additionally, the German company offers assistance in creating new content, such as working with AI-based translation software for subtitles. Regarding their next steps, they are currently testing augmented reality headsets and glasses as a substitute for smartphones in cinemas. Schuepbach also stressed that their entire system is security-approved, with significant investments in this area. “We are also in the trusted partner network of the American studios, and the whole app and backend are double-encrypted”, according to him.

“What we’ve seen here are innovative solutions that feel very much in tune with the issues of today,” said Gubbins during the final discussion, as he asked the panellists for their thoughts on the future of innovation within the film industry. Data, AI, and the connection between the two were the main points raised. All participants agreed that to effectively target audiences and streamline workflows, these tools will be essential. However, they also expressed concern about the need to find new ways of managing the vast amounts of data at the core of this innovation, and most importantly, to sift through it effectively. “I don’t think data is necessarily good if it’s not informative”, as simply put by Alberg Nielsen.

Regarding the broader discussion on generative AI, the consensus was that the film industry should remain a space where creativity is central throughout every step of the value chain. “Generative AI is not only about replacing studios; it’s about making decision-making much simpler based on data”, said the Danish panellist. Similarly, Mimouni remarked that the focus should remain on talent, noting that tools like AI should be seen more as opportunities than threats. “We will regulate them and put talent at the very centre of everything”, he stated.

After the public panel, a closed session was held on 4 July for Europa Distribution members. In this session, participants had the chance to break into small groups and engage directly with the speakers. These roundtable discussions allowed distributors to ask questions and gain more in-depth insights into the services presented the day before, exploring how the various technologies could be tailored to the specific needs of their companies and markets. Finally, they shared their impressions of the different tools with their colleagues during a wrap-up session moderated by Gubbins. The network will continue its activities at upcoming gatherings, which will be held during the Haugesund, Venice, and San Sebastian international film festivals, with more workshops and panels for professionals that will bring together the broader film industry.

The recording of the public showcase is available at the KVIFF.TV website.