The years directly following the COVID pandemic were marked by a dire, almost apocalyptic vision of the future of moviegoing. Audiences that were already declining before global lockdowns became even scarcer, with streamers increasing their market share and smaller arthouse theaters closing because audiences weren’t returning to their doors once they reopened.

However, over the past two years, this feeling of utter doom has slowly and steadily begun to give way to a tentative but very present hope. The same pandemic years that decimated older arthouse audiences have spawned a new generation fueled by a cinephilia built on internet archives, social media, and platforms like Letterboxd, with young film fans lining up for repertory screenings and special events in major US capitals and other cities around the world.

Speaking at the Costa Rica Media Market, Utopia Distribution Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Business Development Charlie Sextro explained how this phenomenon helped reshape Utopia’s launch strategy over the past year.

Sextro, who served as the Sundance Film Festival’s senior film programmer and curator for 13 years before joining Utopia in March 2025, said it’s a “very difficult time right now” for film releases. “In America, it’s maybe harder than ever to really connect and get traction, but I feel like everything is being destroyed right now to be rebuilt and turned into something new.”

“What I love is that it really seems to be based on young audiences falling in love with arthouse films and watching independent films,” he added. “The independent film world has always been driven by older audiences; that was the cornerstone of releasing an arthouse or foreign-language film. But that disappeared with COVID, and now we have this young generation that is driving arthouse cinema, which, for me, is the dream. It’s what I’ve always wanted in my life. Young moviegoers are the best thing in the world, so I’m incredibly hopeful about what’s to come.”

The executive mentioned the success of films like Curry Barker’s “Obsession” and Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” to exemplify how everyone these days looks for “fandom that can help generate buzz.” This notion has helped shape a recent pivot for Utopia Distribution, which will reduce its number of annual releases in favor of devoting more time to each film with heavily curated, event-driven strategies.

“We are a small company,” Sextro said. “We’ve been around for about seven years, which is really a lot for an independent distributor. We used to release nine to ten movies a year, it was pretty regular, one campaign after another in that old-school way of just putting a movie with really good reviews in theaters. That doesn’t happen anymore. So our pivot is that we’re reducing the numbers because it’s not sustainable. We want to be transparent and we need to change the way we release.”

Sextro said that while it’s still incredibly difficult to “stay in theaters” with a small independent career, they can be successful at “creating really interesting events and premiering events.” “What we’re doing now as a company is we’re going to release about four to five movies a year, where we release only one movie at a time, and we’re willing to do a complicated, itinerant style of release that most companies similar to ours won’t do because it’s a lot of work. But we know that if you build something pure for an audience and don’t just fall into the traditional ways, people show up and they love it. They love having something created especially for them.”

The veteran exemplified the strategy by mentioning the recent release of the documentary “Summer Tour,” produced by Chloe Sevigny and directed by Mischa Richter. Utopia decided to tour the documentary about Grateful Dead fans for six weeks before its general release, presenting it solely at music venues and followed by a 90-minute live concert by the Grateful Dead cover band featured in the film.

“We’re creating material for six weeks before we go to the art houses,” he said. “We use the first six weeks to promote the art house instead of just spending money. We are generating income by generating events that [sell.] I always think that movies are great and that there is an audience. What needs to be fixed now is how [films] “They are being connected to audiences. “The way audiences interact with films is what needs to change from the traditional, old-school ways.”

This change is also a direct response to another phenomenon that is changing the industry: a dramatic decline in VOD licenses. “In the last year alone, we have not secured any major broadcast licensing deals from any of the streamers,” he said. “Every time they see our movies, they say [they] They are too small. In a way they have renounced independent cinema, auteur cinema, and that has taken away an important part of the money that was going to go to the premiere.”

“VOD and streaming like rentals, Amazon and Apple are getting smaller and smaller every year,” he continued. “No arthouse movies discovered on Apple and Amazon.”

Asked about Variety Regarding the reason for his visit to Costa Rica, especially because Utopia has a varied catalog but there are still almost no Latin American titles, Sextro emphasized that the company is “agnostic.” “We release documentaries; we release foreign language films; we release a lot of American independent films.”

“In the United States there is a massive audience driven by the Spanish language,” he added. “There are a lot of movies where that’s the highest percentage of ticket buyers, so there’s a huge amount of room for that. We’re open to movies that we love, that we believe in, and that we see a potential audience for. That’s what we look for in a movie, something where there’s passion at the release.”

The executive noted that Utopia looks for films directed by filmmakers with a large number of ideas. “We rely heavily on filmmakers to be partners in the release, to generate ideas and to help us with creativity. The filmmakers are the ones who have the best ideas because they have been living with these films for years and years and years. Yes, I think there is incredible potential in releasing Latin American films, even Spanish-language films in general, in the United States. It is a very strong cause.”