Austin Based B-Side Entertainment Grows a Second Arm - Film Distribution

One of our frequent commenters lamented the other day that, basically, he couldn't understand why SXSW would program movies that already have distribution deals when there are hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller indie films that no one may ever get the chance to see. We, of course, argued that film festivals have to have a balance of more mainstream flicks in order to get the butts in the seat to see everything else, a sort of carrot for the horse. More often than not , those smaller, less hyped films are the ones that truly leave a mark on that particular festival. In the past, many of those films were born and then died on the film festival circuit, but thanks to the creative genius of a couple of Austinites, all that is about to change: B-Side Entertainment announced today that they are launching a film distribution business.

If you have yet to make your acquaintance, may we introduce you to B-Side, a local company that has revolutionized the festival-going experience by creating individual websites wherein participants can research films, plan a schedule and then, most importantly, rate and comment on the films that they have seen. That last step allows B-Side to make suggestions as to what else you might like. The natural outgrowth of this is that B-Side can market specific movies to target audiences based on the data that they have collected from ratings, and they can do it on the cheap.