The state of independent distribution has never been better. Anyone who believes that is either pigignorant, a new distributor with money to burn, or about to be picked up by men in white coats.

The challenges suffered by indie distribs, especially of the more upscale speciality
kind, roll of the tongue like a litany of laments: imploding DVD markets, contracting TV sales, a release glut, a crumbling auteur system, closure of inner city one screens, the barrage of studio-made 3D blockbusters. Ah! And: piracy, rising P & A costs, proliferating leisure pursuits, and contracting core auds.

Not to mention a credit crunch. But, to recoin a phrase, the dearth of indie distrbutors
is somewhat exaggerated. 10 distributors from 10 different European territories are now in San Sebastian, cherry- picked by the European Film Promotion, in collaboration with the Industry Club, for the 3rd edition of European Distributors: Up Next!

These are jobbing pros, not junket junkies, who buy around 200 films a year between them. Pickups include San Sebastian 2010 selections such as Bent Hamer’s Competition player Home for Christmas, bought by Italy’s Up Next! attendee Bolero Film, and October, closed for Switzerland by Look Now, also in San Sebastian.

Running Monday-Wednesday, Up Next! features an open-to-the-public seminar 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 a.m. on distrib markets and indie distrib trends, followed at 2:30 p.m.-4 p.m. by a discussion of the role of film festivals for distribution. Principally a networking event, the meet promising no quick fixes. But it will allow a constant exchange of best - and worst - case scenarios between some of the most energetic distributors around.

That doesn’t mean they’re all dead ringers. The distrib houses and their territories
vary wildly.

Austria’s Filmladen, repped in Donosti by Michael Stejskal, distribs weighty name auteur fare: Joann Sfar’s Gainsbourg, Julian Schnabel’s Miral; Torsten Frehse at Berlin’s Neue Visionen handles Africab and social-issue pics, among a wide range of films; Denmark’s Line Daugbjerg Christensen at Ost for Paradis has recently released Iranian pic Women Without Men, Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Dogtooth; Zagreb-based Continental Film’s Martin Milinkovic put out Avatar.

Panos Martakis at Greece’s Feelgood Ent. has 36 national digital screens to pitch for, Oli Harbottle at U.K.’s Dogwoof 642. In their practices, however, the distributors already suggest some strategies for success.

One is having a foot in exhibition, like Austria’s Filmladen, which operates two Vienna cinemas.

That provides some solution, Filmladen’s Stejskal suggests, to a main bane of indie distribution: Not screen access, but screen longevity, running theatrically for time enough to let word of mouth kick in.

Swift Focus stands by its auteurs, ones with ”singular” styles, telling “unusual” stories, says founder Didier Costet. It’s distribbed Brillante Mendoza’s Service, Kinatay and Lola.

Like many distributors - it was almost a mantra at Berlin- relative Italian newbie Bolero Film favors “quality moves with commercial appeal,” said Bolero’s Simona Calcagni. Dogwoof has cornered a market: social-issue docs, often backed in marketing dollars by corporations, charities and special-interest groups. Katrina Mathsson at Sweden’s Folkets Bio has embraced the digital cinema revolutions. Films which used to go out on two-to-three prints now go out on six to 10. Whatever the strategies, however, one thing remains evident.

The films which distributors are looking for these days, even more than in the
past, if that’s possible, must now “astound and enthrall,” says Swiss shingle Look Now’s Bea Cuttat. And she adds: “We try to compensate for the often-limited advertising and promotion budgets with creativity, imagination, endurance and never-flagging commitment.”
That’s a statement nobody would argue with.

John HOPEWELL