Dear Backers,
Before we tell you the exciting news, we want to summarize recent developments. Signe is back from France where My Love Affair With Marriage was released by Tamasa Distribution on June 7th in 25 cities, including Paris. Signe traveled to six cities to promote the film and connect with audiences. The film received great reviews from top French papers like Le Monde ("Un voyage fantastique!") and L'OBS ("C’est beaucoup, et enthousiasmant!"). The biggest surprise for Signe was to encounter the poster in the Paris Metro. It made her dance with joy!
Signe dances in Paris Metro
As you know, we were determined to have a theatrical release in North America, too. There were many difficulties to overcome, including the near-collapse of indie film distribution. After a long search and many discussions we decided to work with Jon Reiss and 8 Above, his consulting company for production, distribution and marketing, specializing in organizing events around film screenings. Jon has put together a great team including a cinema booker, an audience outreach expert, a social media manager and a publicist to work on the film's release in North America. And now we have dates for you!
On October 6th, 2023 My Love Affair With Marriage will have its North American theatrical premiere in New York City at the Quad Cinema!
On October 13th, 2023 the film will have its West Coast theatrical premiere in Los Angeles at a Laemmle Theatre.
After opening in NY and LA the film will travel to the rest of North America. In addition to cities and towns that our Team is booking, you will soon be able to arrange screenings for your own organizations and communities. More on this later.
To amplify the impact of the release we will qualify the film for the Academy Awards and run a campaign for a nomination in the Best Animated Feature category. To qualify for the Oscars, the film has to have a theatrical run of at least seven days, four times a day in a New York or L.A. cinema. That's 28 screenings in New York!
For the daytime NY screenings we are planing to have free or discounted tickets for groups connected to women, gender studies, relationships, survivors of domestic violence, mental health, Eastern Europe, as well as to students of psychology, neuroscience and animation. Even YOU can organize a group and send us a proposal.
For a big budget production this kind of release campaign would cost millions of dollars. Because we are a savvy low-budget operation we expect our release to cost under $125,000. Our biggest expenses are: Team fees, marketing, advertising, Errors & Omissions insurance and travel (we will travel for the film's events across North America). We have already raised over $40,000 with the help of generous donors who believe in the power of the film.
Please join this drive! Your support will help bring the film to audiences that need stories told from a woman's point of view. You can give today on the Donate Page of the film's website. You can also make a tax-deductible gift through our fiscal sponsor Filmmakers Collaborative, or contact us at MyLoveAffairWithMarriage@gmail.com
Your support means a lot to us. With your help we were free to make the film we wanted to make, and your continuous support will give us freedom to bring the film to communities who need it the most. We feel that even today in this disjointed world, cinema brings people together. Strangers join in the dark to laugh and cry together as they are transported to other worlds. And after the screening they can discuss what it meant to them.
And YES, bringing My Love Affair With Marriage to people DOES take a joint effort. From Brian Newman's blog: "The stories are being told. We just need the same energy that’s been put into making them to be applied to getting them to the public that needs and wants to see them."
One last note: My Love Affair With Marriage just won the Grand Prix in Animafest Zagreb, one of the most important animation festivals in the world. We are thrilled!
THANK YOU so much for your love and support! Merry Summer Solstice!
Love,
Signe, Sturgis and the entire My Love Affair With Marriage Team
