Why the traditional circuit pipeline has changed

The path used to be: make a film, get into Sundance or SXSW, land an acquisition deal and let the rest happen. That has changed, which isn’t to say that the festival circuit is any less valuable. It means you have to adapt with its ever-changing ecosystem.

Get this, Sundance 2025 had three sales during the festival. So out of over 15,000 submissions and 151 projects screened, under one percent of them converted to sales. Is the festival acquisition model as we know it dead? No, but it is changing. At this year’s SXSW’s Niche to Notice panel, featuring the Sundance Institute’s Director of Catalyst and Industry, the author of Think Outside the Box Office, and the Chief Distribution Officer at Angel Studios, it was determined that the traditional festival-to-streaming acquisition model is largely a thing of the past for independent filmmakers.

This isn’t to confuse you, festivals are thriving. As a matter of fact, an analysis surveying more than 15 million ticket sales across 6,000 festivals found that attendance is up. What has changed is that festivals aren’t reliable deal rooms anymore like they used to be, they serve for building community, establishing validation, building press and momentum.

The filmmakers building real careers out of the festival circuit are the ones treating festivals as a marketing machine and of course, a networking opportunity. They build an audience before the film is finished, own the relationship with their viewers, and treat distribution as a phase rather than something that happens after the fact. This means generating buzz early on and maintaining output with clips, behind-the-scenes content, social proof. Knowing who your audience is before submitting anywhere is extremely important.

The Circuit exists for scenarios just like this. While the traditional pipeline changes, the independent circuit is expanding with more festivals, more niche audiences, and more ways to get your work seen by the right people.