“We’re looking for points of difference,” says Will Clarke, Altitude Films co-founder, of the titles the production, finance, sales and UK-Ireland distribution company is looking to release.
”We’re looking for an original voice, supporting, as we’ve always supported, first-time filmmakers and fresh voices in the marketplace.”
Altitude’s 2024-2025 distribution slate is shaping up to be an eclectic mix of elevated genre, broad arthouse and hot-ticket music documentaries – all with a cinematic focus.
“We’re in the business to release theatrical movies, and with the slate we’ve put together, I think that’s loud and clear,” says Clarke, who founded the production, finance, sales and UK-Ireland distribution company in 2012 alongside Mike Runagall, managing director of Altitude Film Sales, and co-CEO Andy Mayson.
“We are looking for more commercially-minded films, and we’re building a lot of those from our own development slate, but equally, we have to look to the open marketplace. We don’t want to miss anything.”
Features set for theatrical release this winter include Audrey Diwan’s San Sebastian opener Emmanuelle, picked up from The Veterans. Noémie Merlant, Naomi Watts, Jamie Campbell Bower and Will Sharpe star in the film exploring a woman’s erotic fantasies in a post-MeToo era.
Also on the slate is Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles’ Portuguese-language feature I’m Still Here, set during the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1971, and starring Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres. It is tipped for a Venice launch next month.
Altitude has also picked up buzzy Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Sister Midnight from Protagonist Pictures – a Mumbai-set feature, directed by Karan Kandhari, about an oddball couple in a newly arranged marriage. Clarke describes this film as a “litmus test for pushing out a film and capturing a youth audience”.
The company is also continuing its relationship with documentary maker Alex Gibney and his musical biography of Paul Simon, In Restless Dreams: The Music Of Paul Simon, on which the company is also the sales agent.
Further down the line, the London-based company will distribute in-house production Turbulence, directed by Swiss No Way Up filmmaker Claudio Fäh – billed as a high-octane action thriller, about the trip of a lifetime in a hot air balloon for a married couple, that turns into disaster.
Before that, three releases are lined up for the next few weeks: blur: To The End is out tomorrow (July 19) at 354 sites, followed by concert film blur: Live At Wembley on September 6, plus Christopher Zalla’s Sundance award winner Radical, about a bold teacher in a neglected Mexican border town, on August 6. (Read more about Altitude’s theatrical slate here).
Clarke says he is feeling “bullish” and affirms, “I don’t mind risking money on films we absolutely adore.”
“We are looking for more commercially-minded films,” he continues. “And we’re building a lot of those from our own development slate, but equally, we have to look to the open marketplace. We don’t want to miss anything.”
In particular, the outfit is leaning into genre material with elevated elements, after the success of last summer’s Australian horror hit Talk To Me, which grossed £2.5m in UK-Ireland. A24 has taken the world for the sequel and Clarke states: “It’s up to us to find another Talk To Me.”
As well as theatrical distribution, the 22-strong Altitude Media Group team covers sales; development, headed up by Laura Wilson, with Clarke confirming a backlog of projects from the pandemic set to be unveiled “in the coming months and years”; production; home entertainment releases, with 4K Blu-ray still “incredibly successful – you can’t underestimate it”; plus a TV arm headed up by Chris Clark, with The Wombles and Cold War thriller The Apollo Murders among TV projects in the works.
Distribution is a department Clarke is keen to further expand headcount in. Bryony Forde heads up theatrical sales, with Adam Eldrett head of home entertainment, and Mark Jones and Kenji Lloyd leading on the publicity and marketing side respectively. Clarke is committed to releasing films on a wide basis and, going forward, Clarke and Mayson are taking a more hands-on role in this area.
“Specialist breakout [films] have been a thing in my career I’ve done pretty well out of in the past, not only at Altitude but at Optimum [Releasing, acquired by Studiocanal in 2006]. We’re never going to turn our back on those kinds of things. They’re nourishing. When they work, they really work.”
Historic hits for Altitude have included The Florida Project and Oscar-winner Moonlight.
“I’m looking for something that changes people’s mind about things, but the competition to get those films is very high. It’s absolutely fierce,” he says, with UK distributors including Picturehouse and Curzon among Altitude’s competitors in this space. “You’ll see us now taking more risks on packages.”
“It can’t just be the studios”
It’s been a difficult period for independent distribution in the UK and Ireland, with audiences slow to return after the pandemic, some disappearing altogether, and Hollywood strikes vexing the production and distribution pipeline.
“The studios do an amazing job, but it can’t just be the studios,” says Clarke. “And let’s not forget, two distribution companies have exited the British film industry in the past year – eOne and Pathe. It’s heartbreaking. We need a strong distribution sector to support new voices and support existing voices, and to be part of the eco-system.”
Soaring marketing costs have added to the challenges facing distributors. Clarke backs calls from Film Distributors’ Association head Andy Leyshon for the new Labour government to enact an expenditure credit targeted at marketing and distribution costs.
“It’s a great idea. I wholeheartedly support it. Something needs to change in the industry,” he says. “It was absolutely instrumental to concentrate on the production side of things in terms of getting that credit up [with the Independent Film Tax Credit introduced in the spring budget under Rishi Sunak’s government], but distribution has been somewhat forgotten in the mix.
“There is a danger our distribution is in peril by market forces and audiences shifting into other mediums. We need help, there’s no two ways about it.”
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