Material plans

The Material madness is still on the go!

In terms of our next steps, we are going to be applying in May to TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) - that is the 1st prize for this kind of film. If we get into Toronto then our international efforts will begin. TIFF is in September, and after that, the next most appropriate festival for Material would be the London Film Festival, which is in October. We are hoping we get into either of these, and if we are very lucky, maybe even both. We have some compelling data at this point, and a bunch of solid reviews, so, yes, with a bit of luck we may just get this right.

Anant Singh is our international partner on the film and we will start our offshore efforts with Anant in the second half of the year. A lot depends on getting into a major international film festival. Toronto, for example, is a commercially oriented film event, and if we get into Toronto then our efforts on the international front will have a built-in launch pad and we will officially start then. If we don’t get into any of the leading film festivals this year, then we will move onto professional industry screenings in London and Mumbai – the challenge here is that this requires further investment etc.

We imagine that we are going to lose half our current screens this weekend because of the recent drop-off from the past weekend gone by. We are hoping and praying that we have at least a dozen sites in play by the Easter weekend. That will be our last key time to try get bums on seats in a bigger way. After that, we anticipate still playing on about 6 to 9 key sites through until May.

Anant starts shooting the Long Walk to Freedom in the last part of May. This is going to be one of the world's most anticipated films. Some serious adventures ahead! Anant is going to be in a very exciting position with the world's leading film distributors, which is going to bode well for Material.

Posted by Ronnie Apteker