Case Study: The Guilty - World Sales and Distribution strategy

Gustav Möller’s debut film has had an outstanding career, since its first idea pitch at Nordic Talents 2015, to its 2017 Sundance triumph and selection as Denmark’s candidate for the 91st Academy Awards.  In this case study TrustNordisk CEO Susan Wendt and producer Lina Flint of Nordisk Spring, give the timeline and unveil the key moments and decisions that contributed to the Danish film’s international success.

2015 - First buzz about the making of The Guilty
Being part of Nordisk Film’s family, sales company TrustNordisk first heard about the making of the film in 2015, when the project backed by the Danish Film Institute’s New Danish Screen, was being developed at Nordisk Film Production’s talent development division SPRING. Wendt said she was gripped by the story of an alarm dispatcher and former police officer, trying to save - over the phone- a kidnapped woman, but also by the concept of using the voice of the central character to emulate the audience’s imagination. One concern however at script stage was the one location and a nearly one-man show from a relatively unknown actor (Jakob Cedergren) and an unknown director.

First idea pitch at Nordic Talents 2015 
Pitched at an early development stage by Danish Film School graduates Möller and producer Lina Flint, the project immediately struck a chord with the audience of 200+ Nordic film students and film professionals at Copenhagen’s Nordic Talents 2015 where it won a Special Mention award.  “This is basically where it all started for the film and where sales companies of different sizes started to approach Gustav and Lina,” recalls Wendt. 

How to choose the right sales agent and when
For the relatively inexperienced Möller and Flint, trying to decide which sales agent to choose was a tough decision. “For a long time, I thought we were doing a more experimental film than we actually did, so at the beginning, Gustav and I were looking for more arthouse sales agents,” acknowledges Flint. Nordisk Film’s sales arm TrustNordisk was eventually selected.

Flint says that a key decision to preserve the film’s artistic process was not to close a deal with a sales or distribution companies before the film was nearly locked. “We wanted to do the film exactly as we wanted, without being influenced by sales and marketing discussions, and to see ourselves first if the film worked or not, notes the producer. 

2017 - Sundance submission and selection
In spring 2017, a rough version of the film was sent to the Sundance Film Festival’s selection committee who picked it for the World Cinema Dramatic competition programme, several months ahead of the festival’s January 2018 dates.  “Knowing in advance that the film was selected at Sundance and keeping quiet until the official announcement [November 2017] was extremely difficult for everyone involved, but it helped us to relax and take our time for the distribution and festival strategy,” notes Wendt.  For Wendt, Sundance was an ideal platform with its tight World Cinema Dramatic competition line up [12 films] that allowed The Guilty to stand out.

Cannes 2017 - First film market
TrustNordisk’s pick up of The Guilty was officially announced on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival on May 10, 2017. The sales company first pitched the film to world buyers at the Cannes market with a sound-driven promo-reel. “There was a lot of interest from world buyers and we received some pre-sales offers, but decided to wait for the finished film. It’s always risky to wait, but we felt the film itself was its strength" says Wendt. 

Worldwide VoD vs traditional distribution
The wait until the film’s world premiere in Sundance also allowed the film team and sales company to evaluate all distribution offers that had been piling up following the Sundance selection official announcement.  A worldwide deal with a major streaming service was eventually put aside to privilege a territory-by-territory rights negotiation. Looking back, believing in the ‘film’s theatrical potential and the more classical distribution route’ was very important and the right decision for Flint. 

2018 - Sundance success, Magnolia Pictures deal
The film was a huge hit at Sundance where it won the Audience Award-World Cinema Dramatic Competition and was snapped up for North America by high profile distributor and long-time TrustNordisk partner Magnolia Pictures. The company’s president Eamonn Bowles said at the time: "Gustav Möller has devised an ingeniously executed thriller with The Guilty. This is an incredibly accomplished feature debut, and Magnolia is excited to introduce him to American audiences."

Wendt said the deal with Magnolia was crucial as it stirred other international buyers’ interest, including from those who were not at Sundance.  Magnolia quickly outlined their vision for the film’s US release and potential Oscar nomination strategy.  Besides world distributors, other festivals and agents approached Möller and Flint, including for remake opportunities. Wendt says: “Our priority was to push for the original film to be sold, and the producer kept the remake rights.” At press time, no deal had been closed according to Flint.

World sales to arthouse/mainstream distributors
After The Guilty’s triumph at Sundance, TrustNordisk closed deals with 20 territories including France (ARP), German-speaking territories (Ascot-Elite), UK/Ireland (Signature), Australia/New Zealand (Rialto), Latin America (California Filmes), Hungary (Vertigo), Poland (Gutek Film), Lithuania (Scanorama/Kino Aljausas), former Yugoslavia (Kino Mediteran), Estonia (Estin), Benelux (September), Czech Republic/Slovakia (Aerofilms), Greece/Cyprus (One From The Heart), Japan (Phantom), Taiwan (Mirror Stage) and China (Lecheng Picture).  The deals were announced on the opening of the 68^th Berlin Film Festival and European Film Market. “We finished off pretty much all territories in Berlin and all market screenings were sold out,” said Wendt. For her, the mix of pure arthouse and more mainstream distributors who acquired the film proved its unique cross over potential and the strength of genre films in today’s volatile marketplace.

Worldwide theatrical roll out - French hit
The film opened first in Denmark on June 14, a date set by Nordisk Film Distribution in conjunction with the influential Danish Cinema Club (Biografklub Danmark) and sold nearly 140,000 tickets. France went second on July 18 and so far, the territory has posted the best results with 260,000 admissions.  ARP Selection’s distribution executive Eric Vicente said: “The Guilty is not only an arthouse film. It is an elevated genre film done with maestria. That is the reason why we have released the film in both original and dubbed version, at the same time in arthouse cinemas and multiplexes.”  As of end of September 2018, other territories where the film has opened include Benelux (88,000 admissions, September Films) and Norway (8,400 admissions, Arthaus).  Next territories to open are Germany (October 18), the US (October 19) and the UK (October 26). 

Marketing materials
Thanks to the five-month lapse between the film’s Sundance world premiere and its first cinema release in Denmark, The Guilty’s creative team, sales agent and local distributors were able to take their time to prepare the marketing tools. TrustNordisk made sure all materials were in sync.  For Wendt, the making of the poster was challenging due to the one location /one character focus. 

The trailer made full use of the rich sound design and extra narration was added to give more fluency to the plot.

US Trailer:

Danish trailer:

World festival attendance
After Sundance in January 2018, The Guilty has attended more than 20 international festivals and picked up several awards along the way, such as such as the Audience Award and Youth Jury Award at Rotterdam, Best Director at Seattle, Audience awards at Montclair and Stony Brook festivals in the US.

Tip from The Guilty's producer to first time producers/directors
Lina Flint: “Do the films that you really want to see yourself and make sure you are able to do them exactly as you want them to be. Don’t be too focused on the launch of the film before you can actually watch the film yourself and at that point, you have to be realistic about the film's potential and then make your strategy. I think it’s a good idea to talk to a lot of different sales agents and distributors to get to know them and the business. It’s a jungle to get to understand that part of the film’s life for the first time.”