Put it out yourself and keep the relationship with the audience.
Release it on the platforms you can reach directly — streaming, VOD, educational, your own site — and keep the revenue, the data, and the audience list.
Shorts after the festival run, niche docs, films with a built-in community.
Nobody markets it for you. Uploading is not releasing — a launch date, a plan, and an audience list are the whole job.
Pick the platform for the film, not the biggest one
Shorts do well on curated homes and on your own channel. Docs often earn more from educational and library licensing than from consumer streaming.
Aggregators are the door to the big stores
Apple TV, Prime Video, and similar storefronts take films through approved aggregators, who charge a setup fee or a revenue share. Compare a few before committing.
Own the list
Every screening, festival, and post is a chance to collect emails. That list is the only distribution asset that carries over to the next film.
Release it like an event
A date, a trailer drop, a poster, a premiere screening, and a week of coordinated posts beats a quiet upload every time.