Alamo Drafthouse is launching a distribution program that’s designed to showcase film festival releases that never scored distribution.
Through Alamo Exclusives, the dine-in cinema will offer limited runs of titles that weren’t acquired from festivals including Sundance, SWSW, Tribeca, TIFF, Cannes, Berlin and its own genre-focused Fantastic Fest. The company’s hope is creating a platform for well-received movies that don’t necessarily fit the traditional theatrical model. Post-pandemic, it’s been a challenging time for independent cinema, which has resulted in recent films leaving festivals without a buyer. Drafthouse plans to work directly with filmmakers to bring their movies to audiences nationwide, providing marketing support and big-screen exposure.
“From the very beginning, Alamo Drafthouse has championed independent film and built strong relationships with filmmakers because we know our audiences value discovering great cinema,” says Michael Kustermann, CEO of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. “Time and again, they’ve shown they’ll come out to support bold, original films when given the opportunity. ‘Alamo Exclusives’ is a natural extension of that. It gives us another way to champion filmmaker-driven films that deserve to be discovered and connect them with the wider Alamo Drafthouse audience.”
