Spain no country for Sundance


Details

Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 22 March 2016




The independent films that premiere every year at the Sundance Film Festival have not found success in Spain, on the big screen or on the country's largest video-on-demand (VOD) platform for independent cinema, Filmin.



sundance me earl dying girl“The leitmotiv is always similar: audience success at Sundance, box office failure in Spain or even straight to DVD without going on the big screen, and many of them don't even arrive in the country,” explained Filmin in a note analysing how independent cinema has performed recently in Spain.

Although Filmin claims to be the country's main VOD platform for independent and alternative titles, a model it has exported to Latin America, it has less than 20 Sundance movies available on-demand.

And its audience figures may prevent Filmin from gaining any more of the Sundance catalogue. During 2015, eight films from the festival premiered in Spanish cinemas, gathering slightly more than 100,000 viewers. The 2015 Sundance winner, Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, premiered in 62 cinemas and was watched by less than 30,000 people.

Other titles which found success at the latest Sundance Film Festival, such as Entertainment, James White and The Summer of Sangaile, have not yet premiered in Spain.

“Sundance's last five editions have had no impact on Spanish viewers. This is high quality independent cinema which is struggling to find its target audience in the country,” said Filmin.