The Film Collaborative Launches Collaborative Releasing (EXCLUSIVE)
The Film Collaborative is launching Collaborative Releasing as a new distribution initiative that combines film sales and licensing with a hybrid release plan, Variety has learned exclusively.
Collaborative Releasing will be focusing initially on documentaries with TFC founder Orly Ravid acting as a sales agent, representing each film to buyers for either all rights or split rights deals. The “distribution” portion will be planned concurrently, prior to a film’s festival or market premiere with TFC strategizing with the filmmakers to map out a hybrid distribution back-up/alternative plan that will incorporate the initiative’s network of partners.
TFC, which touts itself as a leader in film festival distribution, will handle that along with U.S. & Canada theatrical distribution as part of the hybrid release approach, should those rights not be licensed elsewhere.
The partners include Alexander Street (Filmmaker’s Library), Collective Eye Films, Film Sprout, Gravitas Ventures, Kanopy, Outcast Films, Passion River, Wendy Bernfeld’s consultancy Rights Stuff, ro*co films educational & ro*co films international, Tugg, and consultant Jon Reiss/Hybrid Cinema for grassroots outreach.
The initiative, announced Monday, plans to add additional partners and service providers. Physical media home video distribution, airline licensing, and additional foreign sales will be addressed individually.
Each filmmaking team will decide on which partners they would like to work with and each partner will also weigh in on which projects they want to be involved with, on a case-by-case basis.
Ravid said, “This initiative is an extension of TFC’s commitment to helping filmmakers navigate distribution to best meet their goals and potentials. The program bolsters that effort by having a suite of the most synergistic and skilled companies and services for each rights class and a pre-structured plan in advance and in tandem with pursuing sales rather than being a belated afterthought which risks time delay and buzz attrition.”
TFC is a non-profit that’s handled releases on “Camerperson,” “For the Love of Spock,” “Equal Means Equal,” “Hooligan Sparrow,” “Landfill Harmonic,” “Off the Rails,” “Racing Extinction,” “Requiem for the American Dream,” “Tab Hunter Confidential,” “The Hunting Ground” and “The Last Laugh.”
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