Gen Z is not behaving like the audience most independent film decks still describe. 59% of Gen Z subscribe to a streamer for a single title and cancel after watching. 62% will not pay full price for a video game. 71% have stopped buying physical music. 70% no longer buy hard copies of TV or film. The one bright spot is narrow: Gen Z is 13% more likely than older demographics to attend opening weekend in theaters. As a reminder, the 79th Cannes Film Festival opened, which means several...

Last Thursday, I wrote that Cannes is no longer a reliable sales path for the unknown $700K to $5M independent film. Last Friday, I released a video about the Oscars, Hollywood, and the industry filmmakers are asking outsiders to fund. By Saturday, someone publicly tried to reduce both pieces into a complaint about my “attitude.” That response only proves how little of the argument was actually read, watched, or understood. If it had been, the point would have been obvious. This was not a...

Sellers held back their best packages from Berlin in February. That isn't speculation. Buyers complained about it openly on the floor at EFM. Screen International quoted Kim Foss of Camera Film, one of the more serious arthouse distributors in Europe: "For the first time in ages, maybe ever, we did not acquire a single film in Berlin." The reasoning is straightforward. Cannes is where the largest 2026 deals are expected to clear, because Sundance and Berlin have already shown the buyers...