Amazon’s independent film distribution business is becoming a powerful force. After the tech giant’s Film Festival Stars initiative snagged the SVOD rights for a dozen entrants at Sundance, it added 40 more movies to its roster at SXSW.
The films whose streaming rights have been sold include several that picked up awards and jury recognition at the esteemed festival. Most Beautiful Island, which won SXSW’s Grand Jury Award as the gathering’s best narrative feature, is in the Amazon lineup, as are two Audience Award winners and three films that received special jury recognition. A press release notes that 10 out of the 40 films Amazon acquired at SXSW won some sort of award in Austin.
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The deals Amazon made at SXSW fall under the terms of Film Festival Stars, which offers cash bonuses to filmmakers who choose to deliver their movies through the Amazon Video Direct program which is now one year old. Amazon expects to pay out at least $1.9 million to its SXSW partners in order to honor its commitment to them.
The filmmakers who have partnered with Amazon, however, are not only interested in the money, but also in the flexibility Film Festival Stars provides. Amazon is only asking for SVOD exclusivity, which means filmmakers who participate in its program can also seek distribution through other windows. They also get an entire year before they have to post their work to Amazon Video Direct, thus preventing Film Festival Stars from interfering with, say, a planned theatrical release.
Amazon’s quest to find compelling indie pictures certainly won’t end here. The Film Festival Stars team has also targeted the film festivals in Tribeca and Toronto. The former of those two events occurred last month, while the latter will go down in September.
