European distributors talk Cannes titles and the state of the market: “Audiences either love a film or hate it”

Ahead of Cannes, Screen International brought together five of Europe’s leading distribution executives for an in-depth conversation about the realities of acquiring and releasing films in 2026.

Taking part were Bad Unicorn’s Stefan Bradea (Romania), Picturehouse’s Sara Frain (UK), Jour2Fête Distribution’s Johanna Mayer (France), Neue Visionen’s Dorothee Pfistner (Germany) and I Wonder Pictures’ Andrea Romeo (Italy). Between them, they have acquired and released recent Cannes titles including Sentimental Value, Emilia Pérez, Sound Of Falling, The Zone Of Interest, Pillion and The Substance.

Over the course of the conversation, the executives explore the “polarised” nature of the arthouse theatrical business, marketing to audiences in the era of social media and deal-making at Cannes.

How is business in your country as a distributor in 2026?

Stefan Bradea: The box office in Romania marginally increased last year, mostly because ticket prices have risen. We’ve had some good arthouse results — for us Sentimental Value was a big hit, and Flow was a box-office darling, attracting both kids and adults. But the landscape is very polarised. We also released Cannes Competition films Alpha and Romería last year, and they had small results. Like in other territories, distributors want films that have international buzz, awards-season legs, and that can be easily marketed. We try to get films that are arty but also have some cross­over potential in the marketing campaign. But there is a limited number of those titles per year, especially outside Cannes, and they are expensive.

Dorothee Pfistner: Sales agents always say that Germany is a tough market to sell arthouse titles into. German distribution companies all want the same kind of film, or they don’t want them at all. There is a concentration on a few arthouse titles. A few independent titles will work very well, maybe better than a couple of years ago. But the titles in the middle have harder times than they used to. Titles without a known cast that could make 70-80,000 admissions before can sometimes now end up 15-30,000.

This year has been good for cinemas in Germany so far. The problem is that so many movies are released each week. For distributors, it is harder and harder to find a slot for titles and then to keep it — the competition is very high.

Johanna Mayer: It’s also very competitive in France — there are so many films released each week. Just recently, there were 22 releases in one week; the average is 15. Increasingly, the trend is that the winning film leaves very few possibilities for the others. In the arthouse field, there is a ‘winner takes it all’ trend. We’ve had a few films that have performed very well, like The Voice Of Hind Rajab, which did more than 300,000 admissions. But for others, including Cannes titles, it’s been more difficult to gain sufficient visibility to reach audiences. Business wise, it’s a roller-coaster.

Sara Frain: In the UK, 2025 was the best year since 2019 in terms of theatrical box office, which is something to be positive about. We’ve come so far since Covid. We’re in an ever-evolving landscape; it’s about being adaptable.

We are very conscious of the cost-of-living crisis in the UK and how that effects people’s choices on what to spend their money on. But for the right films, audiences will come through the doors in large numbers. What has changed is that audiences are more selective and more risk-averse.

It’s been so encouraging to see new voices and films with original content like Pillion and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You for us and films like One Battle After Another and Sinners really cutting through. Positioning films in smart and innovative ways is key for punching through the noise, and enticing customers through our doors.

In the UK, there’s a big focus on the younger demographic, and that’s hugely important. But the older audiences are coming back. We sometimes under­estimate this audience, and making sure there’s enough content for them. This is a demographic that has money and time, and we find are the most loyal.

Andrea Romeo: This has been a wonderful year for us. We had about 1.5 million admissions in theatres since the start of the year. Marty Supreme was a huge success, and so is The Drama. Last year for The Voice Of Hind Rajab, 260,000 people went to the theatre in a few weeks — an incredible result. These films were programmed in multiplexes as well as in arthouse theatres, and so were films like Pillion and Sound Of Falling. The market is not like it was 10 years ago, when it was very split — either films were for multiplexes or for cinephiles in arthouse theatres. Now there is a new generation of young cinephiles who are embracing elevated genre movies that can open up conversations about society.

If a film is good, they will turn up. But if a film is not good, you can’t sell it to them. There’s a real polarisation. Now they love it or they hate it.

How are you getting audiences into cinemas? Are you adapting campaigns and speaking to audiences in different ways for the same film, or do you stick to one core creative?

Romeo: When we released The Substance, we realised we had a film capable of speaking to two very distinct audiences. To reach them both, we did something you shouldn’t do — two different posters and trailers, one for arthouse theatres showing The Substance as a feminist, super-smart, innovative story featuring two great actresses, while for the multiplex we played up the horror angle. We know a double poster for a film can be risky, but in this case, we wanted to build two different audiences and get them to come to the film for different reasons. I’ll never do that again, it’s very tricky, but it gave us a great result.

Because everyone is on their phone all the time, you have less time to capture their attention. Ten years ago, it might have been 60 seconds, now it is a second and a half. So if the visual is not good enough, if the concept is not clear, if the buzz about the film is not right, there’s nothing you can do.

Mayer: We’re living in the era of the attention economy. In a way, that’s good for cinema. We’ve observed from our successes that cinema brings a sense of community for people who are craving it. The Voice Of Hind Rajab has been a perfect example, but also other political films we’ve released. It’s something we try to focus on — their desire for a shared experience in the cinema.

Frain: In these dark times, the cinema is more important than ever. It’s always been a form of escapism, but now more than ever, being able to lose yourself in a cinema experience and be part of a shared community is very important. I feel that people are coming to more light-hearted, hopeful films. A great example was the success of The Ballad Of Wallis Island last year. And we deliberately positioned Pillion as a comedy — I think people want a sense of relief and escape from what’s going on in the world.

Bradea: So do I. We start by choosing films that can make you think, but not necessarily always in a light-hearted way. That pairs very well with the undivided attention that the cinema requires, especially for the younger audience now, who feel a kind of fatigue with doom scrolling.

There is a real craving to connect away from social media. For us, it’s not only the romance or comedy films that are working, but also Zen-type of films. We are releasing [Ildiko Enyedi’s Venice 2025 premiere], Silent Friend in the cinemas. It’s not necessarily an easy one — it’s two-and-a-half hours and international buzz wasn’t so strong — but it’s caught on with people who want to have a slow and wholesome experience in the cinema.

It sounds like there’s a certain type of film that audiences are turning out for. How will that inform the kind of films you might look at in Cannes?

Pfistner: We go to Cannes without the pressure to have to buy a film since our lineup is already quite full. We don’t have one specific genre we are looking for. We’ll cover the festival films, of course, particularly the ones in Competition, but we are also looking at market films and projects. We generally pre-buy two or three projects in Cannes, often from France but also from other European countries. And sometimes we have a big crush on one film from the selection, as we had with Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez or his 2021 film Paris, 13th District.

We are also looking for upcoming children’s movies. At Cannes, you come home with something you didn’t expect to buy, maybe from one of the side sections or the market.

Mayer: Our slate is pretty full. We already have five films for Cannes, two of which are Rehearsals For A Revolution by Pegah Ahangarani and Blerta Basholli’s Dua. So hopefully we won’t fall for another film! But it’s always possible, and we will always go for it, because we follow our hearts and are quite passionate.

Being a French company, it’s so competitive that we have acquired most of our films before the Cannes announcement. You have to be on board very early when the films are still available. We also submit them to Cannes. That makes us particularly proud of our films. They match our editorial focus on politically driven and socially impactful films. We have many female directors too, something that’s super important for us, as there are not enough female directors in Cannes this year.

Frain: We’ve got a couple of films that we can’t announce yet. So we’re feeling quite buoyed going into Cannes. We’re not specific about the number of films we acquire. I would say we’re active but disciplined. You’ve got to be in this marketplace. You can fall in love with a film and lose sight of the bottom line. You’ve got to remain grounded and think, “How are audiences going to respond to this when we get home?”

Bradea: Yes, that word ‘discipline’ is like a mantra for us. It is essential. It often means walking away from a film that you love. You don’t want to break your neck with a title that you absolutely love in the wonderful, crazy Cannes information bubble. You have to be cool-headed.

Cannes is the key market — maybe too key. It would be better if other parts of the year were better populated. Berlin was a bit underwhelming for us, with just one title that we acquired from there [Mouse by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, which played in Panorama]. I hope that Venice and Toronto will have some interesting gems.

Romeo: What I love most is to be surprised — to have the privilege to fall in love with a film I don’t know in Cannes. That happened to me with Titane, which I saw in the Lumière theatre and bought the day after. It also happened to me with The Zone Of Interest. I wanted to see it at the festival to be sure it was a film for me. And also with The Substance. That was such an incredible experience in Cannes, I felt I needed to distribute this film.

In a way, we have to be very technical and work with a lot of procedure during Cannes, and to remember that the world is not Cannes, and Cannes is not the world. What is cool for the Cannes community can be completely out of order for the rest of the world.

But I have to say that Cannes has changed my life — you enter the festival, and you discover something completely new that stands out from what has gone before. The festival also helps to explain to you the direction of cinema for the next year at least.

Frain: Yes, you’re watching the films that are going to be in the awards corridor coming up. It’s always a very good marker of what films are going to get nominated.

What do you think of the lineup at this year’s festival?

Bradea: There are a lot of First and Second World War stories, so for our market, we will have to be very selective and maybe pick just one. I also think that Competition is a bit focused on too few countries, like Japan, Belgium and Spain. I was hoping for a wider range, but this is why Un Certain Regard, Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week will be very helpful.

Pfistner: Almost half the titles from the main Competition are not available for Germany. From the ones that are available, at first sight, most of them are challenging titles for Germany. But let’s see the films. In Cannes there are always surprises. But if there is a title that will have good potential here, then probably all the Germans will want to jump on it and the prices can get very high.

Frain: It looks like an encouraging lineup. It’s great to see so many auteur voices. We haven’t got many UK filmmakers represented, but I think there’s going to be some real treats to find.

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