Coming Soon, an ongoing editorial feature from Playback, highlights distribution strategies for soon-to-be released Canadian films. Here, we speak to Andrew Hunt, managing partner at Raven Banner and Northern Banner about the distribution strategy for A Date With Miss Fortune.

The film: A Date With Miss Fortune is a romantic comedy about Maria (Jeannette Sousa) and Jack (Ryan K. Scott), whose relationship is tested repeatedly as Jack tries to win over Maria’s quirky and extremely religious Portuguese family.

Production/distribution credits: The film is produced through Toronto-based Picasso Chaser Productions and is directed by John L’Ecuyer, executive produced by Eric Jordan. Other production team members include Jeff Stout (associate producer), Samy Inayeh (cinematographer) and Jeff Warren (editor). The film is distributed in Canada by Northern Banner, Raven Banner Entertainment’s specialty label.

Theatrical: A Date With Miss Fortune opens with a limited, week-long run on three Cineplex screens on Feb. 5 (downtown Toronto, Vaughan and Oakville), with an extension pending performance.

Additional windows: Following the film’s theatrical run, it will be available on VOD (iTunes, Vimeo, Shaw, Rogers, Bell VOD) and Blu-Ray (in Walmart and on Amazon) on May 9. The project has not yet been picked up for broadcast.

Marketing and promotion: Northern Banner’s promotional strategy for the film is to connect the GTA’s large Portuguese community to the film in a similar way My Big Fat Greek Wedding connected with the GTA’s Greek community when it was released in Canada, said managing partner Andrew Hunt. “[Canadian distributor Equinox Films] targeted that movie first toward the Greek community in Canada and there was this great groundswell from the Greek community, and then word of [the film] spread outside that,” Hunt told Playback Daily. The culturally-focused marketing campaign will include ads in community newspapers and street postering in Toronto’s downtown core, as well as promotion via the lead actors (Sousa and Scott) who have large followings in the Portuguese community.  Outside of the community-focused campaign, marketing will also include breakfast-time TV ads on CityTV and Virgin Radio, as well as interviews with cast members on Global’s The Morning Show and Roger Media’s Breakfast Television, with ClutchPR handling publicity. Nelly Furtado and George Stroumboulopoulos also make cameos in the film and will be promoting it through their social channels in the build-up to the release.

In addition, film will be featured as part of Toronto website shedoesthecity.com’s Valentine’s Day Bling contest, where it will receive three weeks of promotion across the sites social platforms.

Target audience: The romantic comedy targets a 25-to-40 year-old female demographic, with Hunt adding that the hope is for the film to be extended into the following week – the most romantic of the year. “We’re hoping to create a nice date movie for Valentine’s Day. Hopefully people’s support will extend beyond the first week, where we can hit that date movie demographic.”

Financing: A Date With Miss Fortune was funded entirely through private equity and Ontario tax credits.