26/11/2025 - During Just Film Industry Days, the panellists debated theatrical and streaming windows, streamer influence, cinema survival and marketing challenges

l-r: Torsten Frehse, Rebecca Hartung, Anne Schultka and Alasdair Satchel during the panel

On Thursday 20 November, during this year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, specifically within the Just Film Industry Days section, the panel “The Shrinking Gap Between Theatrical and Streaming Releases” took place. The speakers were Rebecca Hartung (Pluto Film), Anne Schultka (KIDS Regio) and Torsten Frehse (European Work in Progress). The panel was moderated by Alasdair Satchel, programme co-manager of Just Film Industry Days.

Among the basic questions underpinning the debate were the following: “With the gap between theatrical and streaming releases now averaging about one month, what role do cinemas and festivals play in this shifting landscape? Are festivals evolving into a key moment for films to build buzz and connect with audiences, or are they simply another step in a fast-moving process?”

Satchel opened the panel by bringing up the upcoming Narnia: The Magician's Nephew, helmed by Greta Gerwig, which has been announced to be falling under a very exclusive deal between IMAX and Netflix. It will be screened for two weeks in 1,000 IMAX cinemas across the USA; after that, it will head to Netflix. Tim Richards, former head of the British Film Institute, and founder and CEO of Vue Entertainment, wrote a public letter in which he addressed the problem by saying that the move “risks undermining the very ecosystem that makes theatrical success possible” and that “the industry should never try to convince audiences that there is only one way to enjoy a great film”.

Hartung answered: “I have the feeling that Netflix is a slap to the face of an industry that caters to arthouse cinema lovers”. Frehse commented: “I understand that's what Netflix is doing, and I think it's more ideology, if not economics. We have learned after the pandemic that all movies that come out without a consumer release don’t work very well on the platform.” He also added that cinema figures are usually easier to read and report, while the streaming platforms tend to be secretive with their numbers, even when they involve theatrical releases of their productions.

Talking about marketing strategies related to the releases, Hartung added: “We see so many book adaptations because parents have read those books as a kid, so they naturally go back to the cinema with their children. Nostalgia is a driver, so marketing those films is a lot easier, but films with original IPs never have the same marketing budget.”

Schultka then talked about the need for competitiveness, which is currently a big part of the streaming market. “There are so many platforms that they're essentially trying to outlast one another, to see who will survive in the end. What I gather from Torsten’s general suspicion of streamers and their economic, or non-economic, choices around cinema is that it feels like they're trying to let cinemas die so that eventually only the streamers will remain. It’s similar to what is happening with retail: online shopping is growing, city retailers are disappearing, and when we want to return to physical stores, they're gone, leaving us with only online options. The same dynamic seems to be happening with cinemas and streamers.”

Using the example of her home country, Germany, she also described how the seasonality of films really helps children’s flicks enjoy a longer life. Thanks to Christmas and Easter, the same movies come back year after year, making it onto the lists of the most-watched content. Also, the lifespan of children’s films is lengthened by the continuous refreshing of the audience. New viewers are constantly generated because “a seven-year-old from one year is an eight-year-old the next year, and the next year there is going to be a new seven-year-old coming in to watch the same movie again”.

The role of festivals in the distribution of films was also discussed: “They are events that provide space for films to be seen and to be discussed more. I think the festivals’ position is very strong, and it will be even more important in the next few years. Unfortunately, sometimes there is a certain snobbism. Sometimes, I wish that certain festivals could go back to being events where different types of audiences can get involved,” said Frehse.

Finally, Schultka described her work with Kids Regio and the publication of “European Children’s Film in Focus”, which combined qualitative and quantitative methods to provide insights that can help reinforce the social and cultural importance of children’s films. “We did research across 12 different European countries and asked children between seven and 11 what they relate to when they watch a movie, why and whether they go to the cinema, with whom they watch the films and so on.

“One of the things we found is that they are increasingly connected to the characters in a film. Of course, there are differences in storytelling, but I don't necessarily think this depends on the streamer. It’s got to do more with how storytelling has evolved over the decades. When making a film aimed at children today, you establish a character much earlier so that audiences have someone to follow through a journey. Ten years ago, the focus was probably more aimed at building the world first. I wouldn’t attribute this to the presence of streamers; rather, it’s due to the general evolution of storytelling,” she concluded.