The Film Collaborative is the first non-profit, full-service provider dedicated to the distribution of independent film, including narrative features and documentaries. Based in Los Angeles, The Film Collaborative services filmmakers worldwide by providing distribution guidance and support as well as theatrical, film festival and digital distribution of art house, independent and world cinema.
History
Launched in 2010, The Film Collaborative is a service-oriented, educational organization aimed at encouraging and enabling independent filmmakers to forge their own brands and directly reach audiences with their work. TFC educates filmmakers about marketing and distribution options with the objective to eliminate unnecessary middlemen and break away from the restrictive contract terms that are prevalent in the film industry so that creators, rather than corporations, may profit from their own work. An ardent advocate of new media/digital distribution, TFC encourages filmmakers to use the global reach of the internet for digital marketing and forging an ongoing relationship with their audiences.
In late 2010, The Film Collaborative spearheaded the theatrical release of Javier Fuentes-León's ghostly love story Undertow, which was Peru's Official Selection to the Academy Awards® for Best Foreign Language Film that year. In 2012, they released Jonathan Lisecki's alternative parenting romantic comedy-drama Gayby and Aurora Guerrero's coming-of-age film Mosquita y Mari. In 2014, The Film Collaborative's theatrical releases included Switzerland's Official Selection to the 2015 Academy Awards® for Best Foreign Language Film, The Circle, Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity, Catherine Gund's documentary about the life and work of choreographer and action architect Elizabeth Streb, LGBT film historiographer-director Jeffrey Schwarz's I am Divine, about the international drag superstar and John Waters' leading lady Divine, Darius Clark Monroe's Evolution of a Criminal and The Hand that Feeds. In 2015, The Film Collaborative's theatrical releases included Jeffrey Schwarz's Tab Hunter Confidential, Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe's ERROR, which won the Special Jury Award for Breakout First Feature at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. TFC also released Parvez Sharma's A Sinner in Mecca, Song from the Forest, and 1971, which focuses on a break-in of an FBI office that occurred that year in Media, Pennsylvania to steal over 1000 classified documents. Requiem for the American Dream, featuring famed historian Noam Chomsky, began its release on January 29, 2016. TFC released Nanfu Wang's documentary about a Chinese activist, entitled Hooligan Sparrow, on July 22, 2016. The Film Collaborative, along with Emerging Pictures, will handle theatrical distribution for Landfill Harmonic. The film will open theatrically in North America on September 9, 2016. TFC partnered with Gravitas Ventures to release For the Love of Spock theatrically on Sept. 9, 2016. In November 2016, The Film Collaborative launched Collaborative Releasing as a new distribution initiative that combines film sales and licensing with a hybrid release plan. TFC also rebranded its Theatrical Releasing services under the Collaborative Releasing umbrella. Collaborative Releasing handled the 2018 North American theatrical release of The Song of Sway Lake, directed by Ari Gold.
Slate
Sales and Business Negotiation
In 2011, The Film Collaborative helped negotiate a deal for Andrew Haigh's Weekend. In 2012, TFC launched a new foreign sales initiative for LGBT titles with Peccadillo, Outplay, Pro-Fun, ABC/Cinemien to share resources and launch films simultaneously in multiple territories when possible to maximize awareness and limit piracy. In 2016, The Film Collaborative was a key player in orchestrating a splits right deal for the film Landfill Harmonic involving Vimeo, HBO Latino, Tugg and FilmRise.
Recent Press
Screen Daily, November 23, 2016 Variety, November 14, 2016
Educational Services
TFC offers distribution and marketing education to independent filmmakers seeking to reach traditionally underserved audiences. Via its membership and digital distribution programs, TFC guides filmmakers through the distribution process and helps them develop a custom strategy suitable for their film. In 2012, TFC launched a Fiscal Sponsorship program, enabling filmmakers to contract with TFC to extend tax-exempt status to their specific projects, rather than attempting to secure tax-exempt status on their own.
