A British film sales agency for film and TV
We find the audience before we find the buyer.
Before a film goes to market, we test it with a recruited audience — people who owe it nothing. What we learn shapes how we position it, what we ask for it, and which buyers we approach first.
We keep our representation slate deliberately small — each film we take on is genuinely researched, tested, marketed and sold.
- Representation slate — enquire for availability
- Every film tested before a buyer sees it
The fourteen steps we follow, written out so you can run them yourself.
The Blueprint →What we do
Five things, in the order they usually happen.
We validate the film before it's made
Genre, audience and buyers — established and tested before the budget is committed. Six steps, each a test with a real result: validation or change. The pre-production work that costs far less to do now than to discover was wrong after the film is cut.
Validation →We test the film with an audience
A recruited audience watches it under normal conditions — people who match who the film is for, and who owe it nothing. We measure whether they'd choose it and whether it holds them, then tell you plainly what the numbers mean. Sometimes it changes the cut. Often it changes the minimum guarantee.
Audience testing →We market it to create desire
A film that buyers are already curious about sells for more than an identical film they've never heard of. We build that curiosity deliberately — positioning, materials, festival strategy, the right noise in the right places at the right time — and we do it in service of the sale rather than as a separate exercise.
Film marketing →We sell it, territory by territory
We license your film to distributors, broadcasters and platforms across the major markets, and handle the deal from first approach through to contract, collection and reporting. You see every offer, including the ones we advise you to turn down.
Sales representation →And we consult, when that's what's needed
Not every film needs representation, and not every producer wants it. Sometimes you need an hour with someone who does this for a living. That's a service too, and it's the cheapest useful thing we sell.
Consulting →The fourteen steps
What I would do, in order, to lower the risk on a film and increase its chance of earning money.
Every step is drawn from over a hundred years of Hollywood practice, scaled to fit an independent film's budget and schedule. None of this is new — studios have worked this way since the 1930s. Most independent producers can't get near it at a price that fits. These steps exist to change that.
Stage one · Validation · Steps 1–6
- Establish the film's core genre.
- Test the core genre against established genre rules. Result: validation or change.
- Establish the film's core audience demographics.
- Test the film against core audience demographic assumptions. Result: validation or change.
- Establish the core distributors — those who buy for this genre and these demographics.
- Test the film against those distributors' demand for it. Result: validation or change.
Stage two · Producing · Step 7
- Produce the film — keeping to the established genre, audience and distributors, or retest if you diverge.
Stage three · Audience testing · Steps 8–13
- Screen the film to a recruited audience that includes the core demographics. Collect marketing material.
- Test the film with a focus group from the core demographics. Result: validation or change.
- When scores are high enough, screen to press and industry creatives. Collect marketing material.
- Create marketing material from the data collected above.
- Test the marketing material against core audience demographics. Result: validation or change.
- Collate everything and make it presentable.
Stage four · Market execution · Step 14
- Take the film to market — B2B marketing funnel (socials, festivals, press) and B2B sales funnel (film markets, sales meetings, deals).
The Blueprint is all fourteen steps as a document — written out so you can run them yourself. Read the Blueprint →
Why we take on fewer films
We're currently reviewing the representation slate. Enquire to check availability.
A sales agent's slate is a fixed quantity of attention divided among titles. Ours is deliberately short — we aim to represent around five features per year, though the right film matters more than meeting an exact number.
That isn't modesty. It's the mechanism. On a short slate, every film gets:
- Joey in the room for its meetings, not a junior with a one-line brief
- A territory plan written for that film, not a list of everyone we know
- Screenings arranged for the buyers most likely to say yes, in the right order
- A named person you can call, who has seen the film more than once
We turn down more films than we take. Sometimes because a film isn't ready, more often because we already have something too close to it on the slate and we'd be competing against ourselves. When we say no, we say why, and we'll tell you who we'd send it to instead.
The audience decides what a film is
Everyone in this business is guessing. A buyer sitting in a screening is estimating what strangers in another country will do eighteen months from now. A producer setting a minimum guarantee ask is guessing too, usually generously.
We'd rather know.
A film isn't finished when you lock the cut. It's finished when an audience decides what it is — and that happens whether or not you were in the room to hear it. The only question is whether you find out while you can still act on it, or after the deal is signed.
Studios have worked this way for decades. Independent producers mostly can't: the firms doing this at scale are built for studio budgets and a boutique feature never gets near them. So we do it ourselves, at a size that fits an independent film.
Nobody in this business gets the last word. Not the director, not the buyer, not us. Better to ask early.
Who we work with
In development (financing in place) — producers, filmmakers, production companies and studio executives who want to run the validation steps before committing production budget.
In pre-production — anyone checking creative decisions against genre rules, audience demographics and buyer demand while they are still cheap to act on.
In production — producers keeping the film to the specification the validation work established.
In post-production — directors and producers who want to know how the film plays with a real audience, and what the numbers mean, before a buyer sees it.
Going to market — producers and production companies looking for international sales representation on a film that has been tested and documented.
Dawson's at a glance
- Founded
- 2018 by Joey Dawson
- Based
- London, United Kingdom
- Success Plan
- sales representation, film marketing, audience testing and research, consulting
- Slate size
- deliberately small — typically around five per year
- Markets attended
- all major markets
- Focus
- independent feature films — all genres, no documentaries currently
- Territories
- worldwide and international rights
- Contact
- joey@dawsonagents.com
Common questions
What does a film sales agent actually do?
A sales agent licenses your film's distribution rights to buyers in each territory — distributors, broadcasters and platforms — and takes a commission on what they bring in. They set minimum guarantee targets per territory, arrange market screenings, negotiate the deals. They are not your distributor, your financier or your publicist. They are the person who turns a finished film into deals.
Do I need a sales agent for my film?
If you want international distribution and don't already have direct relationships with buyers in each territory, yes — practically speaking. Buyers acquire at volume, from people they know, in compressed windows around the markets. If you're only after a single-territory release and you have that relationship, you may not need one.
How much commission do you take?
15–25% of gross receipts, depending on the film and the territories. There is no separate representation fee — we are paid on commission. The cash payable at Stage four is marketing spend, published on the pricing page. Always get commission, expense cap and any fee in writing, with any agency.
How long is your agreement?
Subject to contract. We'd rather earn a renewal than hold rights we've stopped working.
Will you look at my film if it hasn't been to a festival?
Yes. Festival selection helps and it isn't a requirement. Send it.
What stage should I approach you at?
Earlier than most people do — when financing is secured. If you're in post, we can help with positioning and testing while changes are still possible. If you're finished, send the film.
When should I be talking to you — before or after the film is finished?
Before, if you can. The work that moves a price most is the work that happens while the cut can still change and while there's still a budget line to pay for it. If the film is finished, we can still help — but we're then working with what exists rather than helping shape it.
Can the cost be built into the film's budget?
Yes, and it's the sensible way to do it. Testing and marketing are production costs, not afterthoughts. If you're still in financing, we'll give you the figures to put in the budget. If you're financed and the money is committed elsewhere, talk to us about recoupment terms.
The calendar decides, not us
Buyers acquire in compressed windows around the markets. Working backwards from those windows is the only honest way to plan a sale.
Our cutoff is eight weeks before a market opens. That is what it takes to validate the audience, screen, recut, retest and build the campaign without rushing any part of it. For American Film Market (AFM) in November 2026, that means we need the film by September 2026. After that the next window is Ventana Sur in December 2026 — which is not a delay of a few weeks, it's a delay of a season.
| Market | Opens | We need the film by |
|---|---|---|
| American Film Market (AFM), Las Vegas | November 2026 | September 2026 |
| Ventana Sur, Buenos Aires | December 2026 | October 2026 |
| Sundance, Park City | January 2027 | November 2026 |
| European Film Market (EFM), Berlin | February 2027 | December 2026 |
| Hong Kong FILMART, Hong Kong | March 2027 | January 2027 |
| Marché du Film, Cannes | May 2027 | March 2027 |
| Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto | September 2027 | July 2027 |
Exact market dates shift from year to year, so we work in months here. Once you're talking to us we'll fix the day against that year's published dates.
Send us the film
We watch everything that comes in, and we reply either way within 2 working days.