<\/p>\n
Indie filmmakers have had a tough last few years.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve faced a softer market at festivals like Sundance, where all-night bidding wars or at least the hope of a distribution deal after a premiere have become few and far between.<\/p>\n
That, in turn, has made it tough to get financing to make more films, as private equity has shied away.<\/p>\n
As the industry shifts, that has left a gap for alternative sources of funding, including crowdfunding.<\/p>\n
I spoke with Taylor K. Shaw-Omachonu, film lead at Kickstarter, to learn more about why some filmmakers are turning to crowdfunding and the company\u2019s expansion into distribution.<\/p>\n
Though crowdfunding campaigns are typically ways for filmmakers to raise money for their projects, it can also allow them to build an audience and prove there\u2019s a market for their work \u2014 a key aspect, particularly for indie films.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to say, \u2018I know who my audience is, and I have a direct relationship with them,\u2019\u201d Shaw-Omachonu said. \u201cAnd that is the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kickstarter itself has also branched out beyond funding. The company now has a partnership with streaming service Tubi, where users can watch dozens of films that got funding through Kickstarter. There\u2019s no guarantee that all Kickstarter-backed films will get a distribution deal with Tubi, but it\u2019s a potential option, Shaw-Omachonu said.<\/p>\n
Crowdfunding isn\u2019t the silver bullet to the financing woes of the film business. But it can make sense for some films, like 2024\u2019s \u201cThe Apprentice,\u201d which struggled to find a distributor after legal threats from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Producers turned to Kickstarter to raise money for the film\u2019s marketing and release. (The film was distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment.)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I always say to filmmakers is work the traditional system, if you can get millions of dollars that way, amazing,\u201d Shaw-Omachonu said. \u201cAlso leveraging, connecting with your audience, running a Kickstarter campaign \u2014 it is a tool that you can put in your toolbox of how you get your slate made.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Indie filmmakers have had a tough last few years. They\u2019ve faced a softer market at festivals like Sundance, where all-night bidding wars or at least the hope of a distribution deal after a premiere have become few and far between. That, in turn, has made it tough to get financing to make more films, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2272010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2272009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sundance-2026-Final-time-in-Park-City-with-celebrity-photos.com2F2b2F212Ff0ba1e5945d8a34926e8d1fd.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2272009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2272011,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272009\/revisions\/2272011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2272010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2272009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2272009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2272009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}