Serving as part of European Work in Progress and as a warm-up panel for the International Film Distribution Summit, the second case study on best practices for international distribution and marketing focused on the example of the animated phenomenon Flow [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Gints Zilbalodis
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scheda film] by Gints Zilbalodis, a Creative Europe – MEDIA-funded film and the winner of the most recent LUX Audience Award (see the news). The panel brought together Joseph Péry, of French international sales agent Charades, which sold the film, and some of the national distributors of the film: Gog Hakheyan, of France’s UFO Distribution; Beatrice Gulino, of Italy’s Teodora Film; and Emily Meinke, of Germany’s MFA Film. After each presentation, the Q&A was moderated by Sylvia Müller, of Neue Visionen Filmverleih and mm filmpresse.

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Charades’ Péry kicked off by outlining the company’s early interest in the film, starting with the 2021 demo teaser of Flow, which he said already showed enormous potential. According to him, Charades was already extremely interested in Zilbalodis – whom he described as a genius – after his 2019 animated feature debut, Away [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which the Latvian filmmaker completed entirely independently. Of course, the success of Flow is now known everywhere, with global box-office takings of €55 million, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and 200 selections for film festivals worldwide, in addition to the aforementioned LUX Audience Award win. Down the line, all three distributors – in France, Italy and Germany – were able to leverage the Oscars campaign and win with great success in their marketing strategies.

However, it became a question of how to convince distributors to see what Charades saw in the feature. Charades’ strategies were thus based on several factors: the lack of a need for dubbing, owing to Flow being dialogue-free; having a recognisable hero in a universal story; and the ability to appeal to various niches, including animation fans and art-school communities. Cannes’ Un Certain Regard became the perfect place to premiere the film, as it developed the status of a “hidden gem”; at Cannes, Charades sold the movie to “75-80% of the world”, explained Péry.

UFO Distribution’s Hakheyan shared that the company released Flow in theatres on the same day as Sean Baker’s Anora, but the key was to differentiate the movie from other animated films from big companies released around the same time, such as Savages [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]. UFO focused on appealing to four audiences: families with children, cinephiles who follow festivals, video-game enthusiasts and cat lovers. In order to reach this viewership, UFO added the subtitle “The cat who isn’t afraid of water any more” in French. Hakheyan also explained their repetition of a quote from Guillermo del Toro about the film, in which he praised Flow as “the future of animation”, which they used throughout the entire campaign.

The company further developed its own poster, with additional art by Zilbalodis, to emphasise the adventure aspect. Hakheyan noted that Flow's total admissions of 800,000 surpassed that of Anora in France, which sold 660,000 tickets. Furthermore, the success of the film continues to this day: it is still playing in ten theatres and has not left the dark rooms for one continuous year.

Teodora Film utilised some similar tactics in Italy while expanding upon others. Gulino – who said she negotiated the deal on the train back from Cannes – explained that their additional Italian subtitle translated to “A world to be saved”, with a particular focus on the environmental aspect of the movie and the four central animal characters. Like UFO, Teodora Film also advertised Flow with del Toro’s words. The company’s unconventional crowning marketing achievement was the popularity of a giant inflatable cat, modelled after the film’s central character, which toured Italy for screenings and travelled to LA for the Oscars campaign. It was also used successfully by other distributors to advertise the film.

Gulino also highlighted some hurdles along the way, including cultural factors – a lack of awareness in Italy around animation as an art form, and theatrical disinterest – and cinemas and broadcasters concerned about the commercial viability of indie animation. However, Teodora Film proved them wrong, bringing the film and Zilbalodis to the Rome Film Festival for its Italian premiere. In Italy, Flow had 185,000 admissions and saw success among less-expected audiences, including a 50% viewership of adults and a 30% viewership of young adults.

Unlike the other two distributors, Germany’s MFA Film bought the feature after Cannes, explained Meinke, who said that the team saw the film twice in one day and purchased it that very same day owing to their excitement. “What might you expect from an animated flick from Latvia about a cat but with no dialogue?” she joked. A lot, apparently. “That’s the joy of being a distributor – you love the film so much that you want the whole world to see it.”

Meinke outlined the major initial challenge that MFA faced in Germany, which was that most cinema operators saw animation as being only for kids. To overcome this, they created a very different poster to that of all other countries, which featured the animal characters like the Italian poster but heightened the dramatic landscape, evoking the colours and imagery of European Romanticism. Their tactic was so successful that they faced a new “problem”: filmgoers were stealing the posters from cinemas for themselves. Flow had its German premiere at Nordic Film Days in Lübeck, opening the festival, and a successful press junket in Berlin with Zilbalodis prolonged its critical success in the country.