Licensing

We get asked about this often enough — usually by people starting their own club — that it's worth setting out.

The basic position

Showing a film to an audience beyond a domestic setting needs permission from the rights holder, even where no ticket is sold. A DVD bought in a shop does not carry that permission. This catches out a great many well-meaning clubs, community centres and schools.

What we do

• Every screening is cleared before it's announced. If we can't clear it, it doesn't appear on the programme, which is why titles go out only two weeks ahead.
• Most clearances come through the established non-theatrical distributors, who handle this for club-sized audiences.
• For titles with no UK distributor — a fair share of what we want to show — we write directly to the rights holder or the production company. It works about half the time, and the other half is simply no answer at all.

What it costs

Between about £90 and £250 a screening for a club our size, which is why membership is £30 rather than £15. It's the single reason a sixty-seat club has a budget at all.

Advice, if you're starting a club

Budget for licensing first and choose films second. Every failed club we've watched from a distance made that the other way round, announced a season, and then discovered what it cost.