Fenton Studios - Film Publicist, Freelance

Fenton Studios is the film arm of Fenton Communications, a fully-integrated, strategic communications agency. Since 1982, Fenton Communications continues to serve nonprofit organizations, foundations, advocacy organizations, government entities, and mission-aligned companies on issues addressing human rights, social and economic justice, sustainability, education, and public health.   

At Fenton Studios, we produce and finance narrative shorts and features, and are currently the production company on two features: a live-capture film of Andrew Scott's Off-Broadway run of Sea Wall, directed by Tina Satter, and Conversion, a horror feature from Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, shooting in November.

We have an exciting opportunity to join Fenton Studios as a Film Publicist on an initial freelance basis, to bring deep press relationships in film and run festival premieres and release campaigns.

This is a hands-on job. You will write the materials, pitch the stories, run the press days, and manage the lists yourself, with support from Fenton's existing communications staff for design, digital and events.

Preferred locations are New York City or Los Angeles, CA, working remotely with opportunities to gather in co-working spaces.

What you will do

Festival and premiere publicity

• Build and run the publicity plan for each title from festival acceptance through premiere: positioning language, press announcement, advance screenings, interview schedule, red-carpet and press-line logistics, and on-the-ground management of talent and filmmakers at the festival.
• Know the press attending each festival and get the film in front of the right critics and reporters before the premiere.
• Coordinate with the sales agent and, once attached, the distributor's publicity team. Hand off cleanly when they take over.

Trade and consumer press

• Place announcements in Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and IndieWire: financing, casting, festival selection, sales, release dates. 
• Draft the release, secure the exclusive, manage the embargo.
• Pitch feature stories, interviews and profiles to consumer and specialty outlets through release.
• Field inbound press requests and manage approvals with producers, talent reps and the distributor.

Materials

• Write and maintain press kits, synopses, bios, production notes and fact sheets.
• Manage stills, key art and clip approvals; keep the asset library current and cleared.
• Prepare briefing documents and talking points for talent and filmmakers before press days and panels.
• EPK and behind-the-scenes
• Plan and coordinate EPK and behind-the-scenes capture on set and in post, working with the production and Fenton's video team.
• On Conversion, this includes a short documentary piece on the filmmakers and the story's origins.

Social and digital

• Draft the social calendar and copy for each title, timed to announcements and premieres.
• Fenton's digital staff execute; you set the content and the timing.

Campaign management

• Keep the press list, the coverage tracker, and the approvals log.
• Send weekly coverage reports to producers and partners.
• Track festival submission deadlines and materials for titles not yet placed.
• Support awards-season activity where a title qualifies: screener strategy, guild and press screenings, FYC materials.

What you bring

• Required 5 to 10 years in film publicity at an entertainment PR firm, a distributor, a studio, or a festival press office.
• Agency experience at Sunshine Sachs, 42West, ID, Cinetic, Falco Ink, or Obscured Pictures, or equivalent in-house work, is desired.
• A track record of festival premieres at the top tier (Sundance, Venice, Telluride, Toronto, NYFF, SXSW, Tribeca) and at genre festivals (Fantastic Fest, Sitges, Beyond Fest, Fantasia), with campaigns you ran yourself, not observed.
• Working relationships with the film trade press and with critics and feature writers at major consumer outlets. You know who covers what and they return your calls.
• Experience managing talent and filmmakers through press days, premieres and panels, including working with their personal publicists and agents.
• Strong writer. Releases, notes, bios, and pitch emails that need no rewrite.
• Comfortable owning the calendar, the list and the tracker without being asked.

Preferred

• Both prestige and genre campaigns on your résumé. Our slate runs from an Andrew Scott chamber piece to a Gen Z horror film.
• Experience with live-capture or stage-to-screen titles.
• Experience coordinating EPK and behind-the-scenes production.
• Awards-season experience, even one cycle.
• Familiarity with the social impact or advocacy world is a plus, but not required; Fenton has that in-house.
• Willingness to apply the same skills to Fenton's communications clients when the studio calendar is light. This is a new practice within an established agency, and the person who thrives here will see it as a range rather than a detour.

What this role is not

• Not a department head. You will not build or manage a team.
• Strategy and client relationships sit with Fenton Studios leadership.
• Not business development.
• No new-business targets, no pitching Fenton's services to producers.
• Not a talent publicist. We represent films, not actors.
• Not a marketing director. Paid media, key art design, and distribution strategy are handled by the distributor or by Fenton's creative team. You feed them; you don't run them.
• Not a senior strategist with a book of business. We want someone who has done the work at a good firm for five to ten years and wants to do it with more ownership and less hierarchy.

How to apply

• Send a résumé and three campaigns you ran, with one paragraph each on what you did personally and what landed.
• No cover letter.