Our piece for the Cannes 2026 issue investigates the latest trends in film distribution, attempting to provide a picture of those buyers who are pretty much still active in the industry.
Those Who Are Still Buying
While everyone in the industry seems concerned about their job and future, the market is already adjusting without really giving us a clear perspective on what it will look like in 5 years. The early-2026 is beginning to reveal clear patterns: film exploitation is bottlenecked, with fewer buyers and tougher deals, content stopped flowing naturally across windows, each title requires a stronger proof of value before getting considered by a buyer. This pictures clearly indicates that there is no more a correct release strategy. Sales people might wonder around market’s hallways like zombies with no clear direction while wondering who could potentially sign them a deal.
The viewer’s perspective
Looking at it from the viewer’s perspective, this is not necessarily a bad thing. There was a time when we could not keep up with all the relevant releases we wanted to watch, and still ended up missing some.
In 2023, global film production reached a historic high, surpassing pre-pandemic levels with 9,511 films produced, compared to 5,656 in 2020 and 9,328 in 2019 (Source: WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization).
At the same time, peak production did not mean peak exploitation. Most of these titles were not reaching profitability, and the box office had still not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Things have changed since then.
With around four streaming subscriptions per household in the U.S. and 2.35 in Europe (Deloitte), have you ever spent 15 minutes scrolling and still felt like there’s nothing you really want to watch? Well, that’s the feeling many viewers we know have today. And some of them are taking a step back, cancelling subscriptions to figure out which platform actually feels most relevant to them.
So back to my point: maybe content could actually benefit from this situation? If fewer titles are being picked up, if fewer deals are being closed, then not everything automatically finds a place anymore. And that changes the way projects are developed, packaged, and positioned in the market.
For years, the system was built on volume. There was always another buyer, another window, another platform that needed content. Today, that logic is no longer guaranteed. Buyers are fewer and much more focused on what actually works.
And this is where things get interesting.
Because while the system is tightening, it is not stopping. Deals are still happening. Films are still being financed and acquired all over the world (maybe less in Hollywood). But not in the same way, not at the same pace, and not for the same reasons as before.
So the real question becomes: who is still buying?
The same old soup
Large players are focusing on big franchises, and that’s a fact. Nothing new. The same old stuff, warmed over like leftover soup, moving from one medium to another. Toy franchises become major movie releases, old movies become new ones, TV shows turn into films, books into series, and so on.
Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel Studios are planning a massive rollout of Masters of the Universe, starting June 5, 2026. While hitting big screens worldwide, MOTU will also land across retail with toys, gaming, collectibles, apparel, and more, with additional drops throughout the year.
So the question is: how can indie films compete with that?
And yet, even during the long, hot Barbenheimer summer of 2023—when both films dominated theaters for months—there were indie jewels here and there that held their ground, and in some cases even broke through being defined “unlikely box office success”, like Jim Caviezel’s US-indie religious thriller Sound of Freedom which made $251M worldwide, or There Is Still Tomorrow which surpassed both Barbie and Oppenheimer in Italy, but still remained a domestic success. While the list still remains in large part US driven, with A24 waving the Indie flag, Asian titles are getting more ground with China leading the way at the top of the global 2025 box office (Ne Zha 2 in 2025 made $2.216 billion) and Europe clearly losing ground being represented only by the UK, particularly with Conclave in 2024 that was defined “a godsend for audiences who crave intelligent entertainment”.
Fewer buyers, stronger purpose
With buyers becoming more selective and less willing to take soft bets, and with big companies still serving the same old soup, what indie companies should focus on, in our opinion, is intelligent entertainment.
This is not the moment to show your cards too early at the exploitation poker game, if the hand is not strong enough. In a fragmented market like this one, every film has to prove its value again and again, across every window and in every territory. Distribution is no longer the relatively fluid, demand-driven system it once was. It has become a more cautious game, where buyers commit later, compare more, and rarely move unless they see something solid on the table.
What is changing is not the existence of the market, but the way a film gets recognized.
The market is less willing to believe in potential alone. A film now has to arrive with evidence. That evidence can come from theatrical performance, festival validation, awards momentum, cast, filmmaker reputation, or genre clarity.
The stronger the evidence, the easier it is for buyers to defend the acquisition internally. Fewer titles are dominating domestic markets, and not all successes generate the same kind of deals. When the market was more lively, and especially during the peak-streaming phase of 2020 to 2022, domestic theatrical success was not the only ingredient a film needed. Today, though, the distribution potentiality of a title seems to count on 4 strong pillars:
- local theatrical success is a legitimizing force for international distribution
- festival or award validation are necessary
- auteur or cast plays of course an important role
- genre determines the exportability
Domestic success outside the U.S. does not automatically turn into global success. Theatrical itself, however, is clearly still alive. Global box office is projected to reach $34.7 billion in 2026, according to Gower Street Analytics, up 3% year on year, even if still 13% below pre-pandemic levels.
Sundance dominates the scenes of the US indie acquisitions schedule. While relevant titles come out from Venice, Toronto, Berlin and now Cannes.
On the international side, the system is still very much active, although more project-driven than before. At the territorial level, buying activity is still very much alive—but it is more granular, more strategic, and often more cautious. Also analyzing those companies that are picking up independent and auteur films outside their country of origins, we can spotlight certain trends and companies particularly interested in distributing this type of content in today’s market.
Those who are still buying are no longer one homogeneous class of buyers, but a diverse ecosystem of world-sales companies, domestic distributors, and hybrid players operating across different functions.
The answer becomes clearer when looking at who is still actively buying across the recent festival cycle.
At an international level, The Match Factory catalogue travels fast, the company now fully integrated into MUBI, remains one of the clearest examples of active world-sales work in 2026. — The Match Factory announced the acquisition of Das Geträumte Abenteuer / The Dreamed Adventure by Valeska Grisebach international sales rights ahead of Cannes Competition. It also featured an excellent Berlin Line-Up which included, the Silver Bears winners Queen at Sea and Rose, plus Home Stories, and Rosebush Pruning.
Paradise City Sales, the Paris-based company formerly known as Memento International, is arriving at Cannes with three titles: A Girl’s Story (Mémoire de fille) by Judith Godrèche and the multiterritory coproduction Titanic Ocean by Konstantina Kotzamani in Un Certain Regard, and The Station by Sara Ishaq (Samaine de la Critique). The slate confirms the company’s positioning around auteur-driven international cinema, following the strong sales trajectory of Primavera, Damiano Michieletto’s debut feature, which premiered at Toronto and was sold in 50 territories. Paradise City will also continue sales at the Marché du Film on recent festival titles including We Are All Strangers and Wolfram, both from Berlinale Competition, A Family from Berlinale Generation, and Tell Me Everything from Sundance, while also presenting upcoming titles in post-production such as Martin Provost’s Love Lessons.
mk2 Films (France) continues to operate at the high end of the auteur market. After Sentimental Value won an Academy Award for Best International Feature, the company arrives in Cannes with seven titles. In Competition, Minotaur by Andrey Zvyagintsev, The Birthday Party by Léa Mysius, Gentle Monster by Marie Kreutzer, Nagi Notes by Koji Fukada and The Man I Love by Ira Sachs; in Un Certain Regard, Ben’Imana by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo; and in Critics’ Week, La Gradiva by Marine Atlan. The company also secured worldwide rights to Céline Sciamma’s complete filmography in early 2026 and is getting ready to distribute Juliette Binoche’s Directorial Debut.
Charades is also active on multiple fronts. Arriving in Cannes with Kokurojo: The Samurai and the Prisoner by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cannes Premiere), it already secured the US distribution for the film with Janus Films. The company’s line up also features two films in competition: Parallel Tales by Asghar Farhadi with Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Cassel and A Man Of His Time by Emmanuel Marre. In the Un Certain Regard section: Club Kid by Jordan Firstman (US) and Everytime by Sandra Wollner (Germany). In the Quinzaine des cinéastes: UK drama I see Buildings Fall Like Lightning by Clio Barnard, the french-japanese animated film We Are Aliens by Kohei Kadowaki. At the Semaine de la Critique: In Waves,animation romance from France, The Blow/Stonewall (Original Title: La Frappe) by Julien Gaspar-Oliveri.A good example of a sales company that is diversifying across genres.
The company Film Factory from Barcelona (Spain) competes with Amarga Navidad (Bitter Christmas) by Pedro Almodóvar, Goodfellas takes to market other two spanish productions: El Ser Querido (The Beloved) by Rodrigo Sorogoyen with Javier Bardem and La Bola Negra (The Black Ball) by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, inspired by an unfinished work by Federico García Lorca and featuring among the other Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close.
Belgian International Sales company Be For Films represents A Woman’s Life by Charline Bourgeois-Taquet after representing several titles at the Berlinale.
Piperplay sold to AF Films (Spain) the remake rights for Buen Camino, Italy’s highest-grossing film of all time.
In North America, companies such as A24, Neon, Sony Pictures Classics, Focus Features, IFC Films, Magnolia Pictures, and Kino Lorber continue to acquire films for theatrical release and downstream exploitation, each with a clearly defined editorial identity.
Sony Picture Classic is still pretty much active on the indie movies front signing multiterritory deals, including one for Saudi thriller Unidentified (TIFF Premiere). The same film also distributed to: KMBO (France), Eagle Pictures (Italy), TriArt Film (Sweden), and Alfa Pictures (Spain). Swedish distributor TriArt also picked up Sirāt and Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize Turkish drama Salvation. Bir Film (Turkey) which was also producer and distributor for Salvation and attached to Couture, recently distributed domestically Ozon’s The Stranger.
Leading US producer and distributor A24 rarely shows some sparks of non-American indie interest releasing some very selected titles in the US, like Pillion in 2026.
Another prominent US independent, Neon, has acquired James Gray’s Paper Tiger with Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller (in Competition). Neon is also the producer and US distributor for the thriller Her Private Hell (Out of Competition). Kino Lorber picked coming of age drama Filipinana, debut film by Rafael Manuel which premiered at Sundance.
Black Bear acquired rights for Sundance Film Festival indie movie Wicker. The company is active on both the international and the domestic front in US, UK, Ireland and Canada.
Madman picked The Beloved for Australia and New Zealand after bringing Sentimental Value and Grace on the other side of the world.
While spanish cinema is shining on the croisette, domestic distributors like Elastica Films and BTeam Pictures are still playing safe giving relevance to established auteurs, local talent, and genre-driven titles with clear theatrical potential. A Contracorriente in Spain is distributing resonant arthouse including Primavera and Yellow Letters, while Alfa Pictures distributed Unidentified, pointing to a slightly more venturesome approach in select acquisitions.
In Italy companies such as Eagle Pictures, Lucky Red, iWonder Pictures, and BIM continue to acquire foreign content for domestic distribution.
Curzon in UK/Ireland also shows a strong appetite for European auteur films like Primavera, Yellow Letters, and Queen at Sea. Yellow Letters was also distributed in switzerland by Filmcoopi Zurich, together with Rose, while another swiss player, Frenetic Films which also bet on Queen at Sea out of the Berlinale award. Cineart in Benelux was among those betting on Primavera.
A-One Films in Russia chose Ozon’s Venice Premiere The Stranger and Calle Malaga, also at Venice FF.
Aurora Films is bringing to Poland a strong and curated selection of Festival films. Other players that are worth mentioning are Aerofilms in Czech Republic, Imagine Film Distribution in the Netherlands, Angel Films in Denmark, and Film4you in Portugal.
In France, the role of domestic distributors remains central to the circulation of international auteur cinema. Companies such as Diaphana, Haut et Court, Pyramide Distribution, KMBO, and Les Films du Losange continue to acquire non-French independent titles early in their festival lifecycle, often acting as first validators after major events. Their editorial positioning allows them to take on films from Asia, the rest of Europe, or Latin America and successfully anchor them in the French theatrical ecosystem, which remains one of the strongest for arthouse cinema worldwide.
In Germany and the broader German-speaking territories, distributors such as X Verleih and Alamode Film maintain a steady interest in international festival films. These companies regularly pick up non-German auteur titles, particularly those with strong festival backing or clear thematic positioning. Germany continues to function as a key secondary market, where films that have already proven themselves in France or at major festivals can further consolidate their international trajectory.
Beyond Europe, several Asian distributors are also increasingly active in acquiring non-Asian independent films. In South Korea, companies like Challan Film and Entermode are picking up certain European and U.S. festival titles with a strong charme, while in Japan, distributors such as Bitters End continue to bring international auteur cinema to local audiences. These players operate in highly competitive domestic markets, yet still carve out space for curated international content, often focusing on directors with strong festival recognition or films with a distinct artistic identity. On the latam front: Pandora Filmes in Brazil, Imagem Film in Argentina, and Cinépolis in Mexico.
Perhaps the most interesting category today is the hybrid one.
Some companies now blur the line. Companies like Mubi, Netflix, and Apple Original Films do not fit neatly into a single role. Mubi is the best example: it can act as a territorial distributor, a global rights buyer, and increasingly a co-financing / supply-shaping player.They can act simultaneously as global buyers, territorial distributors, and sometimes even financiers or co-producers. StudioCanal is another example of this hybrid model, combining production, financing, international sales, and distribution within a single structure. Even more traditional players such as Sony Pictures Classics occasionally operate across multiple layers, acquiring broader rights packages rather than strictly territorial ones. These hybrid players reflect a deeper shift in the market: the boundaries between production, sales, and distribution are becoming increasingly fluid, and the ability to operate across multiple stages of a film’s lifecycle is becoming a competitive advantage. Smaller companies are following restructuring – when they have the strength to do it – with international and domestic distribution teams to gain territory in the market.
Can we predict how the industry will look like?
The result is a more selective market, not an absent one. The circulation of independent and auteur cinema still relies on a core network of committed domestic distributors, each playing a crucial role in validating films across borders.
Buyers are still present, but they are asking a different question. Not simply: “Is this a good film?” Not even: “Did it work locally?” But: “Can this film’s value be explained across territories, windows, and audiences?” That is where the new market logic sits. Local theatrical success matters again, but it works best when it is reinforced by festival legitimacy, recognizable creative strength, and a genre identity powerful enough to travel.
Active Buyers List 2026
The Match Factory — Germany / International
Paradise City Sales — France / International
mk2 Films — France / International
Charades — France / International
Film Factory — Spain / International
Goodfellas — France / International
Be For Films — Belgium / International
Films Boutique —France-Germany / International
PiperPlay — Italy / International
A24 — USA
Neon — USA
Sony Pictures Classics — USA
Magnolia Pictures — USA
Kino Lorber — USA
Janus Films — USA
Black Bear — USA / UK / International
Curzon — UK / Ireland
Diaphana — France
Haut et Court — France
Pyramide Distribution — France
KMBO — France
Les Films du Losange — France
X Verleih — Germany / Austria
Alamode Film — Germany
Eagle Pictures — Italy
Lucky Red — Italy
iWonder Pictures — Italy
A Contracorriente Films — Spain
BTeam Pictures — Spain
Elastica Films — Spain
Alfa Pictures — Spain
Cineart — Benelux
Filmcoopi — Switzerland
Frenetic Films — Switzerland
TriArt Film — Sweden
A-One Films — Russia
Aurora Films — Poland
Aerofilms — Czech Republic
Imagine Film Distribution — Netherlands
Angel Films — Denmark
Film4you — Portugal
Challan Film — South Korea
Entermode — South Korea
Bitters End — Japan
Pandora Filmes — Brazil
Imagem Film — Argentina
Cinépolis Distribución — Mexico
