Submit Your Film

Echelon Studios will consider all genres of film features, pilots and series for license. These include shorts, foreign language and educational film.

If you would like to submit your independent film to Echelon Studios for review please fill out a Preliminary Acquisition Questionnaire so that we can better understand your film.

If you have any questions, you can email a video link of your completed film or a screener to our Acquisition Team.

You finished your film and you now feel uncertain about what to do next. It happens so often—even with savvy indie filmmakers. In some cases, paralysis sets in. And, at worst, you simply let your film sit on the shelf and collect dust. Don’t let this happen to you.

Our Echelon Studios Distribution Program offers opportunities to successfully and economically launch your film:

• An opportunity to book your film in a prestigious art house theater in New York and/or Los Angeles.
• An opportunity to market your film to the digital platforms (iTunes, Tubitv, Amazon, Hulu, Google, and Sony).
• An opportunity to market your film to TV stations and networks (domestic and international).

Don’t Give Up!

We’d like to point out that some noteworthy directors never won an Oscar. And yet they plowed on. They were never discouraged. They kept directing films, and some very memorable ones. Here are a few examples and their films that were nominated but never won:

• Alfred Hitchcock: Rebecca, Spellbound, Rear Window, and Psycho.
• Orson Welles: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, and Touch of Evil.
• Stanley Kubrick: Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, and Barry Lyndon.
• Robert Altman: MASH, The Player, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park.

The lesson to be learned from the above is that filmmakers should do everything humanly possible to launch their films, no matter what. If you don’t try, you’ll never know!

Tips for Filmmakers

1. Hire only a media-savvy publicist to contact the film critics, write and mail press releases, set up interviews, and compile and distribute production notes.
2. Start early on the three most important ancillary markets:
   • The digital platforms (iTunes, Tubi, Amazon, Hulu, Google)
   • TV Sales (both domestic and international)
   • DVD Sales (retail chains, schools, colleges, and libraries).
3. Promote your film on search engines (Google, Bing) and social networks (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X [formerly Twitter]). Be proactive. Depending on others can be dangerous.
4. Make sure your film is feature length (minimum 70 minutes) or short (minimum 30 minutes).
5. Leave an ample amount of your budget for marketing. Unfortunately, this is the rule most frequently ignored.
6. Don’t edit your own film. Trust me. It won’t be easy to be objective.
7. Don’t overspend on filmmaking equipment. A key to your success will be keeping down your costs. Remember, it’s going to be your vision and talent that will produce a worthwhile film and not the money you spend for the latest high-tech equipment.
8. Use professionals to create your website, produce your trailer, and design your poster. These are not places to squeeze the nickel.