Selling A Film and Negotiating Contracts (AKA - Am I Getting Screwed?)

3 "Must-Have" Rights You Should Keep

What Rights You Should Keep When Selling Your Film

Guest Post By:
Anna Darrah and Jilann Spitzmiller, Co-Instructors of Documentary Sales & Distribution For Independent Filmmakers

Selling A Film and Negotiating Contracts: What Rights You Should Keep -
3 "Must-Haves"

With film distribution evolving as quickly as technology is adapting to meet consumers’ needs, it’s a tough time to keep up with the best way to get your film out to the world.

The great thing is that any and every film can find its audience today, regardless of budget, large company interest or marketing dollars.

Even your older films can find new distribution on digital platforms.

As filmmakers, we are more empowered than ever. But you really need to know how to navigate this new landscape of distribution to maximize your power and profits. And each one of your films might take quite a different path.

One of the most important things to keep in mind as you begin to distribute your film is the list of rights that you should carve out for yourself when making deals with distributors.

Sometimes as filmmakers we give away our power and our rights too easily, just grateful that we have any kind of distribution deal at all.

We forget that we are the ones with the valuable property, and that therefore, we have leverage too.

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3 "Must-Have" Rights
You Should Keep

Here are some rights that you should try to carve out:

The Right to Sell Digital Streaming and Downloads from your film’s web site.

The Right to create Specialty Screenings as One-Off Events ("Non-Theatrical" rights)

The Right to offer a free streaming link to the film through your own website URL as a Crowdfunding Perk.

Additional Rights

There are also three other rights which are a bit more complicated and take some negotiating finesse, as they involve windows and other licensing considerations. These are areas that we cover in-depth inside our Documentary Sales & Distribution Course.

These three other rights are:

Public Television Rights – when handled properly, this can be lucrative for you.

Educational and Specialty Markets can be Non-Exclusive.

Semi and non-theatrical can be Non-Exclusive.

The Evolving Distribution Landscape

Most distributors will work with you in allowing you to retain the rights listed above. And you will find that they can be critically important to your bottom line.

These are all areas of potential profit that you can pursue on your own, and they can be quite lucrative for long periods of time if you play it right.

Keeping these rights is also a fail safe, in the event that your distributor doesn’t perform well for your film.

As technology and entertainment evolves, the power rests in the hands of the content creators.

Getting clear on what to keep while you’re selling your film is the first step to insuring that you will be profiting from your own work, and thereby creating a sustainable and satisfying career for many years to come.

About The Authors

ANNA DARRAH and JILANN SPITZMILLER are co-instructors of the brand new Film Sales & Distribution Course: "Documentary Sales & Distribution For Independent Filmmakers."

ANNA DARRAH

Anna is an experienced film buyer, negotiating with and licensing 800+ films in her 15+ years working for Gaiam and Spiritual Cinema Circle. She is currently the Head of Development for Film Nest Studios.

Anna has been an active player on the festival circuit and currently advises filmmakers on custom distribution strategies. She is a Co-Producer on the film MEOW WOLF: ORIGIN STORY, which recently premiered at SXSW.

JILANN SPITZMILLER

Jilann is the co-founder of DocuMentors and an award-winning filmmaker whose work has premiered in competition at Sundance, SXSW, DOC NYC and Edinburgh.

Jilann's films have been broadcast around the globe on BBC, NBC, Sundance Channel, Aljazeera, PBS, Discovery Networks, and many more. She successfully implemented a hybrid distribution plan for her film, STILL DREAMING, which was broadcast on PBS with corporate underwriting. She is also a Director, Co-Producer, Writer and Editor of the documentary MEOW WOLF: ORIGIN STORY which recently showcased on AppleTV, Amazon and many airlines around the world.