Distribution Consulting

Liz Manashil can support filmmakers in a multitude of ways, as your Producer’s Rep or as a distribution consultant. She can —-

  • Recommend distributors who could be a good fit and potentially pitch to them

  • Support you on your film festival run

  • Recommend and connect filmmaker to promotional partners (publicists, digital marketing managers) to help build audiences

  • Give storytellers a good sense of the distribution landscape, players and strategies

  • Help identify contract points that could be red flags for an unsuccessful distribution deal

  • Help identify the best pathway for a film when deciding between several offers

 As a consultant, I am often confronted with the fact that distribution is not a straight line and often very confusing to filmmakers (at an emerging or veteran stage).

To help demystify, I’ve been a part of the following resources:

https://filmmakermagazine.com/120384-truth-about-independent-film-revenue/

https://www.thefilmcollaborative.org/distripedia/distributorreportcard/

https://dearproducer.com/distributors-fact-sheet-2022-edition/

https://thedistributionplaybook.notion.site/

https://lizmanashil.substack.com/p/distributor-reactionsfilm-festival

CLIENT LIST (9/2020- Present)

Films consulted on: Utter Nonsense, Kingdom of Archers, Dramarama, Who’s On Top, The Sleepless, Pizza People, What Lies West, East of the Mountains, Continue: 9, 8,7…, Hold The Line, Meat Me Halfway, The Place That Makes Us, The Florist, Take The Ice, All, Alone, The Kitchenistas, My So-Called Selfish Life, A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, What She Said, Interface, Tipping Point, Wounded Healer, Uncivilized, Acid Test, Ninjababy, Next To North, The Marriage of A Scientist, Necessity Pt 1 and 2, Pushed Up The Mountain, You Resemble Me, A Holiday I Do, Uranium Derby, Jasmine Is A Star, Path of the Past, Daddy, The Snare, Here For Us, WYATZ66: The Wyatt Eddy Story

Via Better Angels: Taste of Heaven, The Philadelphia Eleven, The Long March, Buffalo Soldiers, Photographic Justice, New Wave, Second Growth, Remembering Woodbine, Wednesdays in Mississippi, Welcome to Jay, The Apology

Via The Film Collaborative: Can You Hear My Voice?, The Yellow Wallpaper, A Christmas Tree Love Story, All Who Loved Her, Mom, Forest For The Trees, Rhino Man, Rookie Season, Higher Methods, Potentially Dangerous, The Dark Hobby, Street Heroines, The Art of Rebellion, Arcade Dreams, City Wide, Islands, Miles to Go Before She Sleeps, Finding Groovopolis, Wine, Women and Dementia, The Blues Society, A Look In The Rear View, My Missing Screw, Pratfall, The Eichmann Trial, Pratfall, The 45th Parallel, Space, Hope and Charity, The Real American, All American, Confessions of. a Dope Dealer, The Bear and the Zebra, My Imaginary Life for Someone,

Via Produce Iowa: Iowa Mountaineering, Iowa Writers Workshop Documentary, Kinnick, Happy To Have You, Daughters Short Film Trilogy, Foxes Documentary, PECK

Shorts: Motherlode, A Mind Cannot Touch, Say Your Name

Current Sales: Next To North, Chaperone, Marcie’s, AJ Goes To The Dog Park, Nora, Basic Psych

Current Festivals: Marcie’s, SPACE, Nora, Zoe, The Open Door

Former Sales: Hello From Nowhere, All Sorts, New Year, Thin Skin, The Book Keepers, The Place That Makes Us, Chapman University’s Community Voices Program, The Dark Hobby, A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, Sylvie of the Sunshine State, Burlesque: Heart of the Glitter Tribe, After We’re Over, 12 Months, The Other Kids, Andy Somebody, Underdog, The Mad Writer, Wounded Healer, Utter Nonsense, 2 Lives In Pittsburgh, Imagining The Indian, Motel Drive, Uranium Derby, Finding Groovopolis, The Legend of Mexman, For When You Get Lost, Loren & Rose, Farewelling, Perfect Sweat (episodic), The Elephant In The Room

Recent speaking engagements: The Gotham, Filmmaker Magazine, IFP Phoenix, Feirstein Grad School of Cinema, at CUNY/Brooklyn College, Better Angels, Oregon Doc Camp, Still I Rise, Girls Club, DOC NYC, Doc Institute of Canada, Arizona International Film Festival/Independent Film Arizona, Show & Tell, Big Apple Film Festival, Loyola Marymount University

Obtained offers from: criterion, cineverse, bullfrog, good docs, juno, desk pop, first run, collective eye, launch releasing, freestyle digital media, tello, virgil, argo, indie rights, good deed, vision, giant pictures, gravitas, nacelle, dekanalog, buffalo 8 // Defunct (or basically): Passion River, Mutiny, 1091

Crowdfunding Support

Having run 2 crowdfunding campaigns herself totally over $50,000 Liz took her expertise and oversaw crowdfunding consulting when she worked at Sundance Institute. She advised dozens of Kickstarter campaigns from 2016-2019 and has a 100% successful track record.

Career Development and Mentorship

Liz can be your accountability coach and help you build a career and leverage your work to build audiences and garner more opportunities for yourself.

Professional Bio:

Post-graduation from USC Film School, Liz spent several years as a film critic for the PBS/Hulu series JUST SEEN IT (which she also helped produce and direct). Overlapping this, Liz worked with distribution expert Peter Broderick. In 2016, Liz became the manager of Sundance's groundbreaking Creative Distribution Initiative until the program's close in 2019. As a filmmaker, her debut feature, BREAD AND BUTTER, was called “an absolute must-watch for women everywhere” by HelloGiggles. It was released by The Orchard and can be seen on VOD nearly everywhere. Her second feature, SPEED OF LIFE, was released by Giant Pictures, could be seen on Showtime, and was called, "Delightful in just about every way" by noted film critic Tim Cogshell. After a year of working in impact distribution at Picture Motion, Liz is now a freelance distribution consultant spending her time advocating for filmmakers to have healthy and productive relationships with their distribution partners. She recently, along with Dear Producer, published a landmark series of interviews with distributors: Distributors Fact Sheet and has supported The Film Collaborative's Distributor ReportCard. She's the co-host of hit filmmaking podcast, Making Movies Is Hard!!!

TESTIMONIALS

“We were stuck on the thought that all Indie Distributors were the same; taking huge recoups and charging loads of money for Film Market attendance, Internet marketing and company overhead with little revenue for the filmmaker.  When Liz introduced us to our distributor, she knew just on conversation it was the perfect match for our needs as an ultra low budget film.  We are now on major streaming platforms such as Amazon, Apple TV, Tubitv, Google Play, YouTube & Vudu, and our film, Cicada Song, is performing well around the globe.  I highly recommend Liz to help anyone with a good film find a home that’s right for them!” - Michael Starr (Writer-Director-Producer, CICADA SONG)

“Producing and directing my first feature film was pretty intimidating. Liz's advice was super helpful, non-judgemental and straight-talking. She demystified a lot of the industry nonsense and helped me figure out the right approach for my next steps. Invaluable!"- Chris Blundell, The Hit Squad