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DISTRIBUTEUR DU MOIS

Monica Felea et Stefan Bradea • Distributeurs, Bad Unicorn

“Nous n'avons jamais perdu notre enthousiasme, ni notre désir de partager des petits bijoux”

par 

- Le duo de distributeurs nous parlent du marché roumain, du catalogue éclectique de leur société et de leurs efforts croissants pour capter l'attention du jeune public

Monica Felea et Stefan Bradea • Distributeurs, Bad Unicorn
(© Bad Unicorn)

Cet article est disponible en anglais.

For our first Distributor of the Month interview of 2025, we headed to Romania to speak to Monica Felea and Stefan Bradea, distributors at Bucharest-based outfit Bad Unicorn. During our conversation, we covered a variety of subjects, including the peculiarities of the Romanian market, the company’s work with festivals and marketing campaigns, and its core audience segments.

Cineuropa: How would you describe your business model and editorial policy? How have they changed over the years?
Monica Felea:
Almost eight years ago, when we set up Bad Unicorn, we did it out of enthusiasm, without a well-thought-out plan, just with the impulsive desire to theatrically release a film that turned our universe upside down, after screening it at the Berlinale. We wanted other people to feel what we had felt. That was the birth of our slogan, which we haven’t changed to this day: “Break your mind and heal your heart.”

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We launched On Body and Soul [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Ildiko Enyedi
interview : Ildiko Enyedi
interview : Réka Tenki
fiche film
]
in the summer of 2017, and it was a success beyond all our expectations. This is how Bad Unicorn quickly took off. It was a bit too fast, though, as 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic came along, and everything ground to a halt at a time when we hadn’t exactly found our feet yet. 2021 meant a restart, almost a rebirth, for us. Two films kept us afloat at that time: Corpus Christi [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Bartosz Bielenia
interview : Jan Komasa
fiche film
]
and Another Round [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film
]
. We never lost our enthusiasm, nor our desire to share cinematic gems. In the meantime, we added courage, experience, a bigger team and a larger volume of titles.

What are some of the most recent titles you've been working on?
Stefan Bradea:
We actually had an incredible end to the year, with three back-to-back box-office hits. The animated picture Niko: Beyond the Northern Lights became our first title to take over 100,000 admissions, with an elaborate campaign that established Romania as, currently, the fourth-largest territory for that beloved Christmas animation. Maria [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film
]
and Babygirl both performed great, currently with over 50,000 admissions each. January is also busy, with Bird [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film
]
and The Seed of the Sacred Fig [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Directors Talks @ European…
interview : Mohammad Rasoulof
fiche film
]
launched in cinemas, and soon to be released are Armand [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
interview : Renate Reinsve
fiche film
]
, Beating Hearts [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film
]
and the wonderful Flow [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Gints Zilbalodis
interview : Tapis rouge @ European Fil…
fiche film
]
.

How has the split of income changed between theatrical and other sources of revenue over the last few years?
SB:
The theatrical release is our main focus and also our main source of income in Romania. We choose films that we believe have to be discovered on the big screen, with all of the exclusive benefits and special energy that only a cinema auditorium offers. A film like Maria, for example, looks and feels different in a movie theatre to how it does at home on a streaming platform.

We are happy every time we manage to find and bring to Romania those films considered “too small” for studios accustomed to blockbusters, but which are “too big” to be tackled by other independent distributors. The risks are higher, but so are the rewards.

In the last two years, however, we have seen a tentative but growing interest on the part of Romanian TV channels and independent VoD platforms that are trying to diversify their content. It’s still a small part of our income, but it gives us hope for a more balanced future mix of revenues for well-curated indie films.

Which audience segments do you work with the most, and which ones do you struggle to attract?
MF:
Looking at the audience charts for our films, the principal audience is 30 to 45 years old, an educated public that prefers auteur cinema over entertainment. But it very much depends on the title. There are those works that manage to break through the arthouse barrier and capture multiplex audiences. In those cases, the average age drops significantly. What we’re trying to do with each movie that we release is to appeal to younger audiences, between 20 and 30 years old, who are much more active in relation to commercial, US films. It’s a very important category, not just because they are very active, but also because they are our future audience and they are a curious group, eager to discover new forms of cinema.

For this purpose, we are intensively using social-media channels, attractive visuals and video material, often partnering with cool venues frequented by this audience segment.

Do festivals still serve as a launchpad for distribution?
MF:
This year, we re-evaluated our relationships with local festivals. Of course, a festival screening helps every time – presenting your films at a festival event usually means a full-house screening, a conversation starter and a vibe that the movie adopts towards its theatrical release campaign. But the bigger the festival, the easier a film can get lost among the myriad events. And given that big festivals often need exclusive previews, we do think twice about whether it makes sense to design our release calendar around festivals, rather than using the film’s international momentum. We are now focused on releasing our movies at the most beneficial time for each title, not a time necessarily restricted by festival dates.

 

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