For filmmakers
Your film. Your audience. Your terms.
Substack gave writers a direct line to their readers. Bandcamp gave musicians control over their own release. CONTRABAND is built on the same idea, for filmmakers.
Submit your filmThe problem we are solving
Distribution has always been a gatekeeper. A film without a distributor has no screen. A film with a distributor gives up control of when it screens, who sees it, and what it earns.
Filmmakers are increasingly building their own audiences, on social media, through newsletters, through communities that follow their work. But when it comes to actually screening their films, they still have to hand it over to someone else and hope for the best.
CONTRABAND changes that. You bring the film. We bring the room. Your audience finds you directly.
We support storytellers. Not categories.
We do not ask how you made your film. We ask whether it has something to say and whether an audience wants to watch it. Independent filmmakers, AI filmmakers, hybrid filmmakers, the tool does not determine the value of the work. The work does.
Hollywood has spent the last two years deciding how to feel about AI-made films. We have already decided. If you made something real, CONTRABAND is for you.
What we offer
A real screening to a real audience.
Not a streaming upload that sits unwatched. A scheduled event at a fixed time, in a shared virtual cinema, to an audience that showed up on purpose.
Direct revenue. From day one.
Every ticket sold puts money directly in your pocket. No advance against royalties. No recoupment. No distributor taking half before you see anything. The split is creator-friendly. We will share the details when we agree a screening.
Audience feedback that means something.
After every screening, the audience votes. Did they like it. Would they watch it again. Would they tell a friend. You get that data. Not a streaming platform's black-box algorithm. Real responses from real viewers who chose to be there.
No ceiling on what happens next.
If your film finds its audience on CONTRABAND and a streaming platform wants to pick it up, that is not our decision to block. We actively want that for you. The only condition is a 90-day window before your film appears free on public platforms. After that, it is yours entirely.
One rule
90 days.
Your film stays off free public platforms for 90 days after its last CONTRABAND screening. That is the only condition.
It can go to a paid streaming platform any time. It can be licensed, sold, or distributed anywhere. Just not free and public for 90 days.
We are protecting the people who paid to watch it. That is worth one rule.
What we are looking for
We are building our first slate now. We are looking for finished films of 70 minutes or longer. Films with no existing distribution deal. Films made with genuine intent, independent, AI-produced, hybrid, documentary, experimental. We do not have a house style. We have a standard: does this film deserve an audience.
We are not currently accepting short films as standalone submissions. Short film programmes, three or four films curated around a theme, are something we are open to discussing. If you have a collection rather than a single feature, get in touch.
Submit your film
How it works.
Submit your film below. We review every submission. A member of the team will respond within two weeks.
If your film is selected, we agree a screening date and time, you send us the final film file, and we handle the rest. The platform, the ticketing, the audience, the marketing to our community. You show up, watch with your audience, and get paid.