Over the past year, I’ve spoken to numerous filmmakers, locally and nationally, who have started to take distribution of their films into their own hands.
You have the creative team behind the restaurant industry horror film “We’re So Dead” encouraging people to rent the film through their website. Izzy Roland’s film “D(e)ad” had a non-traditional theatrical run without help from film festivals or a traditional distributor. On a slightly larger scale, YouTuber Mark Fischbach (better known by his username, Markiplier) self-financed his adaptation of the video game “Iron Lung” and then encouraged his fanbase to request that the film screen at their local theater.
Independent cinema has always skirted the norm. But rejection of the traditional distribution model – where film distributors buy movies out of film festivals or elsewhere and release them via streaming or theatrical – has become a prevalent option for smaller filmmakers looking to get their work seen. And, in local filmmaker Aaron Strand’s case, to prove there is a market for these types of movies.
Strand’s film “Withdrawal,” about two lovers trying to make it through a night of heroine withdrawal so they can start their lives fresh in the morning, premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival last year and continued on a successful festival run throughout 2025. Then, earlier this year, Strand announced that “Withdrawal” would play for a week-long run at the Plaza Theatre on Jan. 30, followed by another week-long stint at Ciné Athens (in the city where Strand grew up and where the film takes place) beginning on Feb. 6. The screenings were co-hosted by community partners, and included things like Q&As and short films from local filmmakers in addition to the main event.
Strand wanted to do a week-long run for a few reasons. One, it would allow the film to track on Comscore, which tracks movie theater data nationally. But, the idea also came out of recognizing the limitations of a festival run for a film like “Withdrawal.”
“I think we are in many ways a perfect microcosm of the benefits, but also the structural problems of film festivals in general,” Strand said.
“Withdrawal” has played at many festivals, from the Rome International Film Festival just up the road to the Kanazawa Film Festival in Japan. But, while Strand was happy with the festivals the film was getting into, it wasn’t making its way into some of the more prestigious, name brand events. What’s more, Strand kept receiving notes from festival programmers telling him how much they liked the film, while still ultimately not deciding to program it.
The Film Festival Ecosystem
For Strand, this pattern illuminated greater structural issues in the film festival ecosystem.
“All of this is taking place in a context where there are way more films than there are slots in festivals,” he said. “The core problem is over-supply, under-demand. Everything waterfalls down from that.”
The number of films at film festivals vary by size. By my count, the Atlanta Film Festival programmed just under 50 features last year – and that included repertory screenings like “Taxi Driver” and some “Star Wars” films. This year’s Sundance Film Festival programmed 90 features – but, as the saying goes, Sundance has a lower acceptance rate than Harvard.
Many film festivals put an emphasis on having premiere screenings at their festivals (Atlanta had 24 world premieres last year out of 132 total works, including shorts). Festivals also like to program films that have done very well at some of the bigger festivals, as well as films from local filmmakers to drive ticket sales (in 2024, more than 24 percent of the films at the Atlanta Film Festival had ties to Georgia filmmakers).
So, outside of Georgia in particular, finding space for a movie like “Withdrawal” can be tricky.
“There’s not a lot of room for a film like ours – that was made for a very low budget, that has no recognizable celebrities, did not get the yes on one of the top five film festivals in the country,” Strand said.
But, despite those rejections, “Withdrawal” seemed to be resonating with audiences, in person and on Letterboxd (as of the writing of this article, the film has an average of 3.7 out of 5 stars from 189 reviews). The film won numerous major awards, including best narrative feature at the Art of BKLYN Film Festival, the Athens Film Festival, and the Macon Film Festival. But a generally positive audience response from a relatively small sample size doesn’t necessarily sell the film when it comes to distribution.
“We did not have the sort of festival credibility that set us up to get any sort of distribution deal,” Strand said. “Or, even if we went the route of using an aggregator to put our film on streaming ourselves, we did not have the clout and the reputation to really reach a broad audience.”
Proving the Indie Market Exists
So, how does a small film like this prove its merit? How does an indie filmmaker prove that there is a market for a film like this outside of its festival run? Strand decided to prove it by putting the film in theaters on his own terms.
He had a bit of a head start – he regularly hosts screenings at the Plaza through his podcast, “Behind the Slate,” so the connection was there. But getting people to come out and see a screening of Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low” or Walter Hill’s “The Warriors” is a little different than convincing them to see a movie they haven’t heard of.
“You’re trying to teach people to come out and take a risk on something that they have no context for, that has no star actor that they could put their trust in,” Strand said. “That’s a very different type of storytelling, of why people should trade their hard-earned money, but more importantly their time, to come take a risk on something that is really an unknown quantity for them.”
At first, the film struggled with circumstances beyond its control. Its opening night coincided with “ICE Out Everywhere” protests, with a general blackout on shopping, school, and work called for on Jan. 30. Many small businesses, including the Plaza, opted to stay open and help the movement in other ways (“Withdrawal” donated all of the money from their ticket sales that evening to the Georgia Harm Reduction Coalition). The next day, a snowstorm hit, limiting attendance even further.
“We kind of stumbled out of the gate,” Strand said. “However, the goal of running for seven days, not only will more people have a chance to come see the film, but word of mouth will grow.”
And grow it did. According to Strand, the last four Atlanta screenings were completely sold out. According to data provided by Plaza Theatre owner Chris Escobar, “Withdrawal” had the highest per-screening average for ticket sales of any new release that played at the Plaza that week. The film saw similar success in Athens, and Strand said he is in talks to continue this type of week-long engagement at other independent cinemas across the region, using the data from these first two runs to prove that this is a model that can work.
Lessons Learned
Strand has other projects in the works, including a new feature script he has co-written with artist and activist Jessica Blinkhorn. As for “Withdrawal,” Strand said the lessons from this experience haven’t quite coalesced yet, but he does have a few take-aways. While he believes in the power of a festival run, he won’t ever play “festival roulette” again and plans to be more intentional about which ones he submits to. Also, the experience has made him think more critically about how to really sell a movie.
“That sounds kind of dirty – it sounds like an adulteration of art. But I don’t feel that way,” he said. “I think that the magic of having an idea, having something that convinces somebody to sacrifice their time and pay money to come see a movie in a theater, is a beautiful thing.”
He’s also leaving behind the idea that you always need to have your film seen on the biggest, most prestigious screen possible. One good thing about the increased globalization of our world is that you don’t have to be in those bigger cities to participate in film culture, and throughout the “Withdrawal” run, he’s seen firsthand how hungry audiences in smaller areas outside of New York and L.A. are for independent cinema.
“Each of these towns have this little cohort of cinema nerds that are super stoked. And because of the internet, they know all the same sh*t as any of these effete artistic insiders in New York and L.A.,” Strand said. “They’re on Letterboxd. They read the trades. They read the film news. They’re on it!”