sound of freedom

Source: Angel Studios

‘Sound Of Freedom’

Producers and distributors can learn from the example set by religious-themed film releases when marketing their films, according to a panel at Sarajevo Film Festival.

Rob Williams, content strategy executive at Neon, Faridah Gbadamosi, senior programmer at Tribeca Film Festival and Lizzie Gillett, head of documentary at UK production company Misfits Entertainment took part in the discussion titled Integrity, Impact, and Self-Censorship in Crisis-Era Cinema, hosted by Danielle Turkov Wilson, founder and CEO at Think-Film Impact Production.

“Some very political films on the right have done very well,” said Gillett, citing Alejandro Monteverde’s Sound of Freedom, a religious-themed drama starring Jim Caviezel which made over $250m at the worldwide box office in 2023.

“The top four US box office documentaries are pro-Christian content,” said Gillett. “We may not like that kind of film but they are making money. We must be able to learn from that and to build films that have our own values and reflect things that are important to us.”

“[Christian films] are not waiting on the traditional distribution systems,” said Williams. “They put their own. It’s a parallel distribution infrastructure – taking things into your own hands. If you know you can reach a core audience in a targeted way, that’s really interesting.”

Wilson said that the Christian audience can be defined as “a core fanbase. Christians know that they like Christian films, so they go and watch any kind of film that’s branded as Christian content.”

She floated the idea to the panel that we have “lost touch with the fanaticism approach in film.”

“Have we tried to generalise all films to much bigger audiences?” said Wilson. “Are we too afraid to be niche and go ‘that’s my specific audience’?”

Gbadamosi highlighted the important role of film festivals in finding, building and demonstrating an audience for a film.

“Film festivals were not built for you to find a distributor,” said Gbadamosi. “The majority of film festivals were built by people who could not get their films distributed. They were built as a way to build an audience. That is what they exist to do – build a core audience who are super invested in your journey with this film, who will help you get your film out there.”

“You come to Tribeca, you’re building a very specific New York audience that you can prove you have. You go to New Orleans, you’re building a southern audience; you go to a queer film festival, you’re proving that you can get a queer audience. That’s what festivals are about.” 

Targeting an audience should begin even before a festival berth, said Wilson. “Be specific about who your segmented audience is,” said the executive. “Don’t wait for a festival to decide for you; make them want you. Make them see you bring an audience value to their own distribution.”

Gillett also advised producers to be willing to drop a film project if it isn’t working. “It’s OK to stop doing a film,” she said. “You can make a choice – there is an opportunity cost to keeping on doing the old thing. It’s always about the strategy to reach an audience. If you don’t feel you can reach an audience it’s OK to put that down and start something new.”

The three panellists are on the CineLink Impact jury, which will select the recipient of a €20,000 in-kind award presented by Think-Film Impact Production, awarded at the CineLink ceremony on Thursday.

Sarajevo Film Festival runs until Friday, August 22.