LELA MEADOW-CONNER "Don't Get Played: Own Your Own Big Screen Energy"

MARKET MONDAY #6

TRANSCRIPT:

I’m Lela Meadow-Conner. My background is in film festivals. I worked in the film festival world for over twenty years as a co-founder of the Tallgrass Film Festival. I worked at the Bentonville Film Festival, the Woods Hole Film Festival. I served as the executive director of the Film Festival Alliance for five years throughout the pandemic.

Through my company, mamafilm, I’m also a creative producer. I’ve produced many shorts, a feature documentary Chasing Amy, and was recently an executive producer on Run Amok, which premiered in the Dramatic Narrative Features selection at Sundance. I also run a pop up micro cinema where I live in Wichita, Kansas. As Ted said, I’m the co-founder of the Popcorn List, an annual list of films without distribution recommended by film festival programmers across North America, including Slamdance.

I currently serve as the interim executive director of Arthouse Convergence. A lot of people have asked me, what is Arthouse Convergence? It is a nonprofit service organization that supports community focused, mission driven cinemas from across the country. So the reason I give you all that context is so that you know that I’m coming to you with my NonDe dangerous idea, wearing a lot of hats, and from several different points of view across the ecosystem from filmmaking, distribution and exhibition.

Don’t get played. My big NonDe dangerous idea is don’t get played by the current system, where theatrical exhibition is a dream for filmmakers and not an expectation.

Let’s not let the patriarchal and capitalistic ways of the past determine how our films get seen. You must own your big screen energy. Theatrical should always be part of your distribution plan, and it shouldn’t be at the bottom of your list.

Keep in mind the exhibition is a crucial part of your distribution plan. Do not accept a distribution plan that doesn’t offer or include theatrical. And if a distributor isn’t prepared to and willing to market your film across several channels of distribution, should they really be allowed to distribute your film? Ask yourself that. And if you’re independently distributing a film, don’t just settle by throwing your film up on an aggregator.

So we touched on a little bit before, but what is a theatrical window? It is something that filmmakers must embrace. Theatrical windows aren’t something they’re teaching you about in film school, or that many independent distributors even want you to know about.

A theatrical window is a time frame drawing which films are only available to watch on the big screen. Back in the day, there were ninety days. Typically, the pandemic obviously changed a lot of that. Somebody mentioned day and date was very common. Now, today on average, for studio films, it’s thirty days. And an average for Indies if you get one is seventeen to fourty-five days.

But the good news is today’s windows can absolutely take different shapes. So think about what works best for your film. It doesn’t have to be your typical wide release. You can do select cities. You might be able to do a one-night-only across several cities and one theater, or several theaters. Or you can be creative, as Ami said, like with a mix of limited, you know, virtual combined with in-person.

There are a lot of ways to do it. As long as you keep in mind that that theatrical window is really, really important for you.

But here is why they are essential.

The bottom line is theatrical windows aren’t just good for your film, they’re good for the entire independent cinema ecosystem at large.

Here’s why you have to care. Here are some reasons to embrace that big screen energy of yours. The format you made your films for the theater, right? So you design the cinematography, the sound, the special effects – that was made for a big screen, not an iPhone. Sometimes they’re made for an iPhone now, but in general, you probably made it to be seen on a big screen.

A theatrical release signifies a sense of legitimacy versus a film that just lands on the streaming service or an aggregator. Critics, press and industry will pay more attention to a theatrical release, and a theatrical window gives your film distinct periods of release to help keep it in the zeitgeist for longer, for a longer amount of time, and keep it as part of the cultural conversation.

Audiences – guess what? They still want to go see movies on the big screen, despite what, you know, the trades might be telling us. People are still going to the movies and they will experience your movie differently. As I mentioned on a big screen, in a theater, in a dark room, legally, with strangers. And just like film festivals, theaters are spaces where you can forge real and authentic connections and in-person connection to your audiences. You can meet them in real life, but more importantly, they can meet you. Which means not only will you gain followers and audiences for this film, but you’ll build a loyal fan base for your career going forward.

Oh yeah, distributors. You should care because many of them don’t. For many of these distributors, the theatrical window is not a priority. Why? They haven’t budgeted or they just don’t have adequate marketing dollars to put into a theatrical release, or they don’t see a value of spending it here. Again, I ask, should they then really be distributing your film? Are they the right distributor for you?

Marketing exclusivity. Sorry, we touched on it before, but exclusivity creates windows, creates demand. And, word of mouth marketing remains the strongest form of marketing for films.

Financial. The theatrical window lends itself to downstream financial success. It will generate more sales when it hits other windows due to the buzz including VOD, physical media and other income earning opportunities like impact on educational screenings.

The ecosystem, which is my real main point. Theatrical windows support the theaters themselves, and we’ll touch on that a little bit more. Booking your film in-theater, especially arthouses and independent cinemas is good for the theatrical business as a whole. And I’m assuming, like me, most of you believe in going to the movies, right? And your career, which is also part of the ecosystem – they are good for your career. Your relationships with theaters who will support your future work like you do with festivals. Critics and press will have you on their radar. And having a film, a theatrical distribution is an impressive feat. It’s cool. Even people beyond your mom will be excited about it. And it will help with your future films and future theatrical opportunities. If you can say that you were able to have a theatrical release.

So here’s what you can do. Because like Courtney, I’m also a mom and I’m like, okay, we can talk about the dangerous, gnarly ideas. We have to have some solutions too, okay, so don’t accept a bad deal. If your distributor isn’t offering a theatrical, why aren’t they? This is a red flag, and you should maybe hold off on accepting a deal until you explore your options, or have deeper conversations with them about it.

If you’re distributing independently, consulting a contract with a distribution service, provider or, like Analisa mentioned, film booker or consultant, they can really help you walk through this process of why theatrical is important. A couple people have mentioned budget, of course. Make sure that you budget for your theatrical window from the beginning because you will spend a lot of time and money, and both you or someone on your team should be compensated for it.

And even if you do work with a distributor, factor in a marketing budget, because there will never be enough money. And you always need more money. Traditionally, distributors paid all P&A costs, but the budgets are dwindling. And it certainly also can’t be up to the theaters alone to market your film, which I think has been sort of the perception right now, is that, oh, the theaters should do the work, but it really, again, goes back to the ecosystem and everybody playing their part.

Data: so you can collect all the data you can from a theatrical window beyond just what you’ll get from .com-score or, you know, box office numbers. Somebody mentioned that you think about collecting butts in seats. How many people really showed up to your movie, post screening testimonials. You can do surveys if possible. Again, this is something that distributors are not likely to do for you.

So you need to be strategic and think about these creative opportunities. And then get creative with marketing and supplements, especially for independent and arthouse cinemas. The Q&A’s, the virtual, in-person, the merch, swag, giveaways, personal introductions that you can pre-record, send the theaters BTS and, you know, social media assets that they can use to help promote your film.

And so I want to talk a little bit about arthouse convergence and why independent cinemas are so crucial in this landscape. So this is the Arthouse Convergence, the North America arthouse cinema map. You can find it on our website, Arthouseconvergence.org. Every year we do a national audience survey, and you’ll see that 61% of the people go to the movies. We just launched our own Substack today. Art House Convergence. We have entered the chat, so please follow us. Thank you.

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About SLAMDANCE

Slamdance is an artist-led organization, founded in 1995, dedicated to championing independent voices in film and digital media. Its mantra - by filmmakers, for filmmakers - guides year-round programming including the Slamdance Film Festival, Screenplay Competition, Slamdance Unstoppable, DIG (Digital, Interactive & Gaming), and Polytechnic, an accessible education initiative.

Slamdance celebrated its 32nd Film Festival February 19–25, 2026, in Los Angeles - its second year in the city - as well as online via the Slamdance Channel.

Notable Slamdance alumni include Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers: Endgame), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), Lynn Shelton (Little Fires Everywhere), Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard), the Safdie Brothers (Uncut Gems), Marina Zenovich (LANCE), Lena Dunham (Girls), Sean Baker (Anora), Rian Johnson (Knives Out), Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), Merawi Gerima (Residue), Andrew Patterson (The Vast of Night), Natasha Ofili (Creed III), and Julio Palacio (Makayla’s Voice: A Letter To The World).

Slamdance’s mission is to serve as an agent of change in filmmaking and digital media, making the creative work of artists with divergent voices accessible to everyone.

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