Self-financed, Self-distributed Doc Nominated for Oscar

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This is a great story that demonstrates how independent filmmakers can bypass the old distribution machine. Oscar nominated film "Valentino: The Last Emperor."  The self-financed, self-distributed film about fashion designer Valentino Garavani and his longtime business and life partner Giancarlo Giammetti played theatrically for more than six months, grossing nearly $2 million domestically from 32 prints. The unique way the film was released makes Valentino‘s success story all the more interesting.

Back in February, after successful screenings at the fall festivals in Venice, Toronto and then the Hamptons, it was announced that the Tyrnauer and his producers would opt out of traditional distribution offers that had been put on the table, instead releasing the film independently through Truly Indie – a company that helps filmmakers act as their own distributors by providing access to all the services of a professional theatrical release. “That allowed us to have our hands on the levers, basically, rather that kicking the baby goodbye and crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. We were deeply involved in marketing strategies and patterns of release and press strategies,” according to director Matt Tyrnauer. The film has opened nationwide, broke $1,500,000 and is still going strong. Oprah Winfrey got a hold of the film, and without being pitched anything, decided to do a show on the film and its “stars. They carefully plotted the next cities while Valentino toured promoting the film, on Oprah, on Charlie Rose, on “The View,” even on Ryan Seacrest. “That really put up us in the zeitgeist,” Tyrnauer recalled. “People really connected to the film, and we’ve been being really careful to select markets that would respond." Another key for Tyrnauer was Q&As, which he participated in aggressively across the film’s expansion. att Tyrnauer's not exactly fly-on-the-wall portrait is one of the better money-makers of the year for documentary films: it has grossed over $1.5 million going with a city-by-city type of release.

 

 

 

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