Australian distributor Troy Lum is a key buyer of international and arthouse films through Kismet, and he produces too — now through Brouhaha Entertainment. He explains how he maintains his portfolio.
Taste matters, affirms Australian producer/distributor Troy Lum. “The path for a film to be successful is so narrow and only good films work,” he says. “Theatrical is feast or famine. In the old days, films that weren’t brilliant could still do business. Now, many films don’t work, but if you hit the target the sky’s the limit.”
Through Kismet, the outfit he runs with Jason Hernandez which releases in Australia and New Zealand, Lum is in the middle of a busy period distributing three awards season big-hitters: Anora, Emilia Pérez and Maria.
Anora has taken $94,000 (a$1.5m) in Australia and New Zealand in the first three weeks following its December 26 release. “Pro rata, it is tracking above the US result and is likely to reach a$2.5m-a$3m [$1.6m-$1.9m],” says Lum. “That is a fantastic result in the current climate.”
He says the core audience is a “hip crowd” of 25 to 35 year olds interested in independent films. Kismet is eyeing this “new” audience closely and, in this case, worked with social-media influencers to accelerate the word of mouth that is driving ticket sales.
In contrast, the audience for Emilia Pérez, which opened on January 16, is not defined by age. “They’re anywhere from 25 to 60-plus, into traditional arthouse and interested in the avant-garde, risk-taking and films from master directors,” says Lum.
Maria is scheduled for January 30. “The film is likely to be for more of a classic arthouse audience, 50-plus, aware of [opera singer] Maria Callas,” predicts Lum. “They are the people who saw Lee, which I produced, and Conclave.
“The overseas awards heat and publicity is doing a lot of the work for us,” he continues. “We are still putting in the work but it’s a lot about timing. Different marketing and publicity contractors have been brought on for each.”
Lum has been in the distribution business since starting at Dendy Films in 1996, developing important relationships over the years with international sellers including FilmNation, Charades, Mister Smith, Black Bear and Blue Fox.
“A film has to add up on the page and have something to say,” he notes of the kind of projects he is looking for. “Good directors are more important than ever.”
An A-list cast is also critical. In acknowledging the difficulty for indie producers in securing bankable names, Lum points to the need to nurture a new generation of actors that attract young audiences. He namechecks a trio of rising Australian stars: Josh Heuston, from Sean Byrne’s Dangerous Animals, which is in post with Lum producing; Talk To Me lead Sophie Wilde, “a superstar in the making”; and Lee Tiger Halley, who stars with Wilde in Netflix mini-series Boy Swallows Universe, produced by Lum’s production venture Brouhaha Entertainment.
After Dendy, Lum created Hopscotch Distribution back in 2001 to release upscale indie films, which was followed in 2009 by production arm Hopscotch Features with producer Andrew Mason and screenwriter John Collee. The distribution arm was acquired by eOne in 2010 and Lum worked as head of eOne Asia Pacific, while still involved with Hopscotch Features, until he launched Australia-New Zealand distributor Kismet in 2021. Kismet’s biggest success to date is the broad homegrown comedy Wog Boys Forever, the third film in a hugely popular franchise, which grossed $2.2m (a$3.5m) in Australia in 2022 (it was not released in New Zealand).
More on-brand for Lum was Kismet’s second-biggest hit Aftersun, which grossed $1.07m (a$1.7m) from Australia and New Zealand. “Ten years ago I was worried the arthouse market was dying out,” says Lum. “But for the first time in 15 years, it is starting to build a new audience.”
Production slate
Brouhaha Entertainment is the Anglo-Australian production outfit that brings together Lum and Mason with UK producer Gabrielle Tana, and backer John Glencross, CEO of Calculus Creative Content, which has utilised the UK government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme that supports indie companies. Brouhaha secured further investment in October 2024 from US-based Anonymous Content with which it had worked on its first series, Boy Swallows Universe.
Kismet has a first-look deal with Brouhaha but the only resulting release to date has been Lee Tamahori’s The Convert, which grossed more than $630,000 (a$1m) in Australia and New Zealand. Brouhaha titles Lee, starring Kate Winslet, and Firebrand, starring Jude Law and Alicia Vikander, were released by Studiocanal and Sony respectively in Australia and New Zealand.
Brouhaha aims to produce at least two films and one series per year. In mid-2025 cameras will roll on Bharat Nalluri’s comedy OK Boomer, starring Bryan Brown and Heather Mitchell as a couple travelling to their daughter’s wedding. “It’s a road movie with a postcard feel and echoes of Muriel’s Wedding,” says Lum of the film, which has been picked up for international sales by Blue Fox.
Dominic Cooke’s Insomniac City for Altitude Film Sales is set to shoot in the third quarter of 2025. Bill Hayes has adapted his 2017 memoir about grief and his love affair with neurologist Oliver Sacks.
Anton Corbijn’s Switzerland-UK co-production Switzerland, starring Helen Mirren as novelist Patricia Highsmith, is in pre-production and will be shot in Switzerland, Italy and Europe from the end of January for FilmNation.
Meanwhile, Dangerous Animals, described as Jaws meets Wolf Creek, is in the edit suite for Mister Smith Entertainment.
On the TV side, Brouhaha is developing a series adaptation of mother-daughter story Lola In The Mirror from Boy Swallows Universe author Trent Dalton.
Lum will attend the Berlinale remotely, taking online meetings and financing OK Boomer and Insomniac City. He plans to attend Cannes, acquiring for Kismet, taking meetings for Brouhaha and checking in on Switzerland, which will be in post in the UK. “Supporting creativity is my aim,” says Lum of how he juggles his busy life. “My companies are separate on paper but it feels like one thing.”
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