Touring your feature with a carnival barker strategy

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Aaron Strand posts on The Slam that Just Because You Build It, Doesn’t Mean They’ll Come.

He debunks the romantic notion that a great independent film will automatically attract an audience, emphasizing that modern creators must actively engage viewers through grassroots marketing and personal outreach.

Drawing from the self-distribution of his feature Withdrawal, Strand outlines a community-based “carnival barker” strategy that relies on personal presence, local partnerships, and direct audience connection rather than relying solely on the festival circuit.

He takes these concrete actions to market his film and attract audiences on his roadshow tour:

  1. Put a face to the project: He positions himself as the “star” and protagonist of the marketing story, sharing behind-the-scenes narratives and details about his personal background.
  2. Attend every screening in person: He travels to every tour location to introduce the film, participate in post-screening Q&As, and personally meet and shake hands with audience members.
  3. Establish local partnerships: He collaborates with members of the community in each city to have someone local introduce the film or moderate the Q&As.
  4. Host community lobby events: He invites local non-profit organizations to set up information tables in the theatre lobbies to turn the screenings into larger community events.
  5. Support other independent creators: He invites local filmmakers to screen their short films before his feature and helps others raise money for their own upcoming projects.
  6. Deploy promotional assets: He creates and distributes non-negotiable marketing deliverables, including trailers, social media ads, giveaways, and promotional videos.
  7. Send direct messages on social media: He tracks anyone who interacts with his film’s online content and sends them brief, unautomated, personal invitations via DM to clarify the exact date and time of the screening.

My take: kudos to Aaron! This is a ton of work!

The numbers behind Telefilm’s Talent to Watch 2026-2027 projects

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Telefilm Canada has announced that Telefilm Canada invests nearly $3.6M in 16 Talent to Watch projects from 136 submissions.

It’s quite revealing to look at the numbers in detail.

Let’s start with Type.

Narrative 12
Documentary   4

The Narrative features break down thusly:

Drama 7
Horror 2
Comedy 1
Romantic Comedy 1
Mystery/Crime 1

Province?

Ontario 6
Quebec 4
British Columbia 2
Alberta 1
New Brunswick 1
Nova Scotia 1
Prince Edward Island 1

Screenwriter?

The Director 14
Not the Director   2

Let’s look at Language next.

English 6
English and Farsi 1
English and French 1
English and Japanese 1
English and Nisga’a 1
English, Spanish and French 1
French 4
French, English and Japanese 1

And let’s finish up with Stream.

Filmmaker Apply-Direct 6
Filmmaker Apply-Direct (OLMC project) 2
Filmmaker Apply-Direct (Indigenous component) 1
Industry Partner 4
Festival 3

In addition, if Gender is assumed from names:

Female approx. 17
Male approx. 17

Some observations:

  • The number of submissions is down from last year.
  • Documentary projects are way down this year.
  • Drama remains the most popular narrative genre.
  • Almost all of the successful projects are from Ontario and Quebec.
  • Only two projects have Screenwriters that are not the Directors.
  • Four projects are helmed by one individual filling the director, screenwriter and producer roles, rather than a team of two or more.
  • The vast majority of successful projects continue to be Filmmaker Apply-Direct, given that the Festival stream is de facto Filmmaker Apply-Direct.
  • One quarter of the successful projects are from Industry Partners.
  • After being shut out for two years in a row, Atlantic Canada roars back with three projects.

My take: really nice that Telefilm got this announcement out in September, as last year folks were on tenterhooks for almost another month. This is the fifth year that filmmakers could apply directly and Telefilm has rewarded them well! Therefore, if you can apply direct, bypass your local industry partner, for odds of approximately one in 8 1/2.

TIFF 2026 Short Film Winners

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The Toronto International Film Festival announced 2026’s award winners on September 20. Let’s focus on the short films.

From the media release:

Short Cuts Awards are presented to the Best Canadian Short Film, Best Animated Short Film and Best International Short Film, as awarded by the Short Cuts jury. Each of the three winning films received a bursary of $10,000 CAD. The 2026 jurors for the Short Cuts Awards are Joecar Hanna, Chris Lavis, and Iris Ng.

Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film:

Fight Kid, dir. Michael Del Monte | Canada

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “A film that is at once gripping and cautionary, offering a sharp dissection of inherited masculinity and ambition. We were taken by its enigmatic and electric journey, and by the unique way it blurs performance and reality, making it almost impossible to disengage from the screen.”

Honourable Mention:
Almost Pink, dir. Justine Prince | Canada

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “A film that helps us address another shameful and traumatic experience we fear to share. Disturbing but vital, it confronts the sexual exploitation of teenagers and the social and economic forces that allow it to happen. With remarkable confidence, the film builds and sustains an unbearably tense and terrifying atmosphere, demanding that we pay attention to a reality too often kept out of sight.”

Short Cuts Award for Best Animated Short Film:

Into The Betaverse, dirs. Varun Raman, Tom Hancock | United Kingdom

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “This film is a venue where ridiculous meets the profound. It is a surprisingly emotional comedy about friendship and finding love in unexpected places. This confident hybrid of live action and animation is unapologetically primitive and loose. Which, in an era of AI smoothing, that roughness only makes its humanity feel more present.”

Honourable Mention:
Terminal, dir. Alexandre Siqueira | Portugal, Spain, France

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “We shared the joy of discovering a film that knows how to be poetic and surreal without becoming overwhelming. It creates a delicate allegory of death and loss while giving us the space to sit with those emotions. Its animation is crisp and full of detail, but never calls attention to itself at the expense of the story. The style serves the film’s quest to connect rather than competing with it.”

Short Cuts Award for Best International Short Film:

MAMMALIA, dir. Elia Kalogianni | Greece, Netherlands

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “We were struck by the audacity of a film willing to expose what we would rather not admit about ourselves and concepts we thought we were comfortable with. Bold, visceral, and formally assured, it explores the toxic relationship we don’t examine enough with those around us. It takes the grotesque and makes it disturbingly relatable, forcing opposing sides of a double standard into the same frame. What first feels extreme slowly reveals itself as something much more unsettling: a reflection of our own behavior, and of a society whose contradictions urgently deserve to be challenged.”

Honourable Mention:
The Spectacular Death of Prisca, dir. Kaelo Iyizoba | Nigeria

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “We wanted to give an Honourable Mention to a film that took us on a completely different kind of ride: a delightful mashup of melodrama, action and comedy that reminded us of the pure joy of making and watching cinema. Executed with remarkable precision in both filmmaking and performance, it turns family dynamics into something heightened, absurd and unexpectedly revealing. We were especially struck by how original it felt without ever seeming to chase originality. Choices that many filmmakers might hesitate to make were handled with such confidence and ease that the film created its own singular tone, full of personality and completely free of pretension.”

In 2026 “TIFF presented 294 films from 72 countries, welcoming over 800 talent across 98 red carpets. The Festival hosted 2,000 accredited media, close to 7,000 TIFF: The Market delegates, and 279 directors from around the world.”

Awards eligibility can be found at tiff.net/awards

My take: only two of the six short films recognized are Canadian. Out of thousands submitted…. btw, the Best Canadian Feature Film Award excludes first or second features, a stipulation that seems overly cautious, restrictive and — unnecessary. What if…?

How to spark ideas

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Simon Meyer, of Berlin, has just released How To Get Good Ideas For AI Films on YouTube.

Simon knows his stuff! He and co-creator Muhannad Nassar won the $150,000 grand prize at Higgsfield AI’s March 2026 Action Contest with their two-minute short film Grandma vs Wasp. Simon also won the Runway Big Ad Contest – twice.

Watch his video! And here are some quotes:

“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away.”

“There are a lot of creative techniques like the “What If” technique where you ask a question like, “What if cars could eat cake?” or the “Genre Mash Up” technique which is very popular on TikTok like mixing the horror genre with an ad for toothpaste.”

“I would recommend another technique using “The Opposite of What People Expect” — find the opposite of what everyone is expecting. That’s one of the strongest techniques, at least for me.”

“Another technique that I use quite often is the “Different Angle” technique. To everything, there are multiple angles. Is the glass half full or half empty? The optimist says it’s half full and the pessimist says it’s half empty. But those are just two angles everyone knows. A physicist would say the glass is always full. It’s half water and half air. Someone who just crossed a desert couldn’t care less about the level at all. To them, it’s survival…. The magic is never in the what — it is in who is looking at it.”

“The best advice I can give is make it personal. Make it yours. You can come up with whatever you want. You don’t need to stick to rules. Break the rules, be creative, and do whatever you want.”

My take: Great advice! Personally, inspiration strikes and I develop from there. But I can see that brainstorming many, many ideas first can unearth a real gem.

Cinematic AIGV Workflow

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Seattle’s Yutao Han, aka Tao Prompts, has just released a great resource called The Cheat Code to Cinematic AI Videos on a Budget.

He ranks ten factors that influence the realism of generated video. In order from least to most important, here they are:

  1. Resolution
  2. AI Video Model
  3. AI Image
  4. Sound Design
  5. AI Prompts
  6. Camera Shot
  7. Colour Grade
  8. Lighting
  9. Reference Materials
  10. Idea

Some takeaways:

  • Image to Video is the standard workflow. Create lots of cheaper images and then choose the right model to animate them. 1080p seems to be the sweet spot between speed, resolution and cost.
  • Start with a great image as an expensive video model won’t necessarily fix a poor one. To this end, using an LLM to reverse-engineer reference material can help.
  • Expect to recreate sound in your edit.

My take: What’s fascinating about this list is that the top five factors plus sound design are traditional filmmaking concepts. In Yutao’s mind, the technical aspects of AI generated cinematic videos are less important than starting with a great idea and wrapping it in the elements that will express it best. In other words, begin with a story worth telling.

Marketing Tips for Independent Films

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Maggie Bera tells us on FilmFreeway: How to Build Your Film’s Buzz Before You Call It a Wrap.

This no-nonsense, list-heavy article suggests seven areas indie filmmakers must address if they hope to get any attention focussed on their projects. Maggie says:

  • “Set up your film’s online home before you roll camera.
  • Assign someone to capture behind-the-scenes content.
  • Turn your cast and crew into ambassadors.
  • Plan your content before production begins.
  • Think beyond the trailer.
  • Build an email list before you need one.
  • Celebrate every milestone.”

She then lists many steps you can take to accomplish this:

  1. “Reserve your film’s website domain.
  2. Create an Instagram account (or dedicate a Highlight on your existing account).
  3. Write a one-sentence logline and short synopsis.
  4. Set up a simple landing page with an email signup.
  5. Choose a consistent username and visual branding.
  6. Hire a still photographer and capture pictures of: The slate on Day 1, Hair and makeup, Camera and lighting setups, The director working with actors, Crew members collaborating, The monitor during playback, Production design details, A wrap photo after each shooting day.
  7. Create social media content such as: Meet the cast, Meet the crew, Five questions with our cinematographer, Why I joined this project, Favorite moment from set; utilizing a reusable template in Canva so every cast and crew spotlight has a consistent look.
  8. Build a social media content creation calendar and add it to your production schedule, including activities like: your first table read, costume fittings, camera tests, location scouts, rehearsals, the first day on set, wrap day, editing sessions, your composer’s recording session, etc.
  9. Create and post a trailer.
  10. Also share: production stills, filmmaker interviews, screenplay excerpts, behind-the-scenes photography, and conversations about your creative process. This might include: Storyboards, Prop-building videos, Costume sketches, Lighting diagrams, Editing comparisons, Notes from your director’s notebook, etc.
  11. Invite people to join your Email List through: Your website, Crowdfunding campaigns, QR codes on business cards, Networking events, Your social media bio, a “Stay Updated” form on your website, etc.
  12. Share every milestone as a story worth celebrating, such as: Finishing the script, Wrapping principal photography, Picture lock, Composer recording sessions, Color grading, Festival submissions, Festival acceptances, Your first public screening, etc.”

My take: Maggie’s task breakdown for the social media marketing of an indie film is great, both thorough and concise. I love that its unspoken goal is to capture attention online and attract future viewers into the world of your film, to ultimately convert them into super-fans so that they become your ambassadors. Remember, word of mouth is the best form of promotion.

First original film of the 2020s to pass $500M

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Curry Barker‘s horror hit, ‘Obsession’ Becomes Hollywood’s First Original Film of 2020s to Gross $500 Million Worldwide, according to Jeremy Fuster of TheWrap.

According to The Numbers, it made $263,451,715 in the US and Canada and $238,212,000 in the rest of the world for a total of over $501,663,715.

Barker’s advice to young filmmakers, via Jake Coyle of The Associated Press:

“I went to a film school for a year out in L.A. and I watched people paralyze themselves with the pressure of: I’ve told people I’m a director so now I have to direct something that has to be good. If it’s not good, everyone’s going to judge me. The result of that thinking is two years on one short film. You can’t put too much pressure on an idea. You just got to make it.”

My take: so, not a good first date flick.

To what extent does nepotism help movies get made in the industry?

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Stephen Follows on Substack just asked What percentage of Hollywood film professionals are nepo babies?

He researched the top 100 movies of this millennium to find out.

He “counted someone as having family ties if a parent or close blood relative (i.e. a sibling, grandparent, uncle, aunt or cousin) worked in film or television before that person’s own entry into the industry.”

And there are a lot of key creatives with family in the industry already: 28% of top actors, 26% of directors and 18% of writers.

Crunching the numbers, Stephen concludes:

“Seven in ten of the biggest films of the past 25 years had at least one person with industry family at the heart of their creative team.”

The full post is worth reading because Stephen looks at the trend, if the films perform better and career impact. He finishes with:

“Family ties get you a modest start earlier, keep you in the game longer, and buy you another roll of the dice when a film disappoints. The surname is more of a safety net than some kind of accelerator or guarantee.”

My take: this is a new spin on, “It’s about who you know.” But it does go far in explaining why Hollywood seems slow to adapt to new trends. I just wish @stephenfollows would break out these stats for Canada, the UK and Australia.

Is Generative AI Video at the Bad CGI stage?

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Recently, I wondered about the parallels between VFX and GAIV. I found two interesting YouTube videos:

Breakdowns & Blockbusters laments that CGI is getting Worse.

In Is Traditional VFX Dying? ErikDoesVFX went head to head with Higgsfield, pitting modern VFX against GAIV. His wife claims victory, but then he reveals Higgsfield’s second, more creative version:

My take: the genie is out of the bottle and GAIV is just another tool that creators now have in their toolkit. I predict Hollywood will quickly become its biggest user simply because their schedules and budgets will render traditional VFX unfeasible.

Book Publishing Trends for Indie Filmmakers

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Following up on how we can adapt the Indie Music Fan Playlist for indie film, Jo Light on No Film School offers 3 Book Publishing Trends Screenwriters Should Steal.

After watching John Matthew Fox’s video that breaks down five trends reshaping the publishing industry in 2026, she thinks three can also apply to indie filmmaking.

John’s five topics, and Jo’s three comments are:

1. Selling Direct is the Future: “…rethinking funding and distribution; instead of chasing traditional distribution deals that take 30-50% (or more) of your revenue, you can sell directly to audiences and keep most of what you earn.” Check out her article to see which outlets she suggests.

2. How to Deal with the AI Explosion: “The fact that you are a human writer can be the thing that sets you apart.”

3. Growth of Deluxe Editions and Collectibles: Jo skips this but I think the comparables for film are: printed scripts, posters, and DVDs with BTS extras. Could also be the unique props in your movie!

4. BookTok is the Goliath in the Room: FilmTok “content can be diverse — thirst traps, reviews, dramatic or comedic edits, even picture slides.”

5. The Audiobook Takeover: Jo skips this but I think the comparable for film is an episodic Podcast version of the feature.

Jo sums up her summary with:

“Gatekeepers matter less. Direct audience relationships matter more.”

My take: I think the parallels between books and features are stronger than those between music and movies. Both books and films require undivided attention by the audience for extended periods of time. Both have exclusive, established industries that in are the middle of adapting to the digital future. I think the audiobook/podcast option holds a lot of promise.