Irish audience designer Síle Culley on why good films struggle to find viewers, the mistakes filmmakers make, and why understanding your audience should never mean compromising your creative vision.

Every year, thousands of independent films enter the international festival circuit. Some carry extraordinary stories and distinctive cinematic voices. Many have taken years to develop and produce. Yet even a remarkable film can struggle to find the people who would appreciate it most.

For Irish audience designer Síle Culley, this is one of independent cinema’s most persistent problems. And the solution often begins long before a film reaches the screen.

We tend to think about audiences when a film is finished, when festival submissions begin, when distributors are approached, and when marketing campaigns take shape. But Culley believes filmmakers often leave one important question unanswered: Who is this film really for?

Drawing on her experience in distribution and audience development, Culley helps filmmakers understand how their stories might connect with viewers without sacrificing their creative vision.

In conversation with Kinopear, she reflects on the challenges of finding audiences, the pressure of festival premieres and why the most prestigious opportunity is not always the right one.

When Good Films Go Unseen

Culley did not plan a career in audience design. After studying media arts and completing postgraduate studies in production management at the UK’s National Film and Television School, she began working in film distribution in London.

What initially seemed a practical career choice soon changed her understanding of cinema.

She saw how difficult it could be to persuade exhibitors to screen independent films, even when the work was exceptional. Too often, films struggled not because they lacked artistic merit, but because they failed to reach people who might connect with them.

“I was getting very frustrated with beautiful films not finding the audience,” she recalls.

That frustration eventually led her to TorinoFilmLab’s Audience Design programme.

“On the first day I thought, ‘Yes, this is for me.’”

She later established her own consultancy, helping filmmakers and producers navigate the complicated journey between making a film and finding its viewers.

Along the way, she noticed how intimidating the industry could be for newcomers. At festivals, producers would approach her privately with questions they were uncomfortable asking publicly.

“It shouldn’t be like that,” she says. “Things should be much more accessible and inviting.”

That belief continues to shape her work.

The Question Filmmakers Ask Too Late

Filmmakers spend years developing scripts, securing funding and bringing projects into production. By the time the film is complete, they face another demanding process: festival deadlines, sales negotiations, distribution decisions and promotional campaigns.

Culley calls this period the “flappy chaos.”

She believes some of that uncertainty can be avoided by considering audiences earlier.

But she is careful about timing. Audience design, she argues, should not interfere with the earliest stages of writing, when filmmakers need freedom to discover their stories. Instead, she favours introducing it during late development, once the screenplay has found its direction.

“It brings you closer to your film,” she explains.

The purpose is not to reshape a story according to market expectations. It is to understand more clearly why the film matters, what emotional experience it offers and who might respond to it.

Audience Design Is Not Marketing

Audience design is often mistaken for another form of marketing. Culley sees a fundamental difference.

Marketing asks how to persuade people to watch a film. Audience design begins by asking why they might care.

“It looks to understand,” she says. “It looks to align.”

Rather than starting with promotional campaigns, she begins with the filmmakers themselves. Why are they telling this story? What do they want viewers to experience? What makes this film different?

“It is about the whole team,” she explains. “The motivation, the reason why we want to put the film into the world, and how we imagine people engaging with it.”

For Culley, understanding audiences is not about making cinema more commercial. It is about helping filmmakers recognise and communicate the distinctive identity of their work.

Not Every Film Is for Everyone

One mistake Culley frequently encounters is the assumption that a film should appeal to as many people as possible.

Filmmakers often describe their audiences through broad categories: young adults, women between thirty and sixty, arthouse viewers or festival audiences.

But demographics alone reveal little about why someone might connect with a particular story.

Culley encourages filmmakers to think more personally. Who might recognise something of their own experience in this film? What emotions could it awaken? Where are these viewers likely to discover it?

“We’re not reverse engineering stories,” she explains.

Understanding an audience should not mean creating safer or more conventional cinema.

Our conversation turned towards something I have often noticed while watching films as a festival programmer. Some emerging filmmakers seem to hesitate just when their stories become most interesting. Ambiguity is explained away, difficult conflicts are softened and unusual narratives become more predictable.

I described this tendency as “rounding things off.”

Culley smiled. “I love that phrase.”

For her, the answer is not to remove those rough edges. It is to understand why they belong in the film.

When filmmakers are confident about what makes their story distinctive, they are better placed to defend difficult creative decisions.

Not every viewer will welcome ambiguity or discomfort. But those qualities may be precisely what makes a film meaningful to its intended audience.

Beyond the Dream Premiere

For many emerging filmmakers, festival success is closely associated with Cannes, Berlin or Venice. A premiere at one of these festivals can open important doors, but Culley questions the assumption that prestige should determine every decision.

A film’s audience may be found at regional festivals, community screenings, film societies, universities or through digital platforms.

Sometimes a smaller festival can provide a more engaged audience than a prestigious premiere. Likewise, a committed distributor who understands the film may offer more than a well-known company with little interest in the project.

Culley’s advice is simple.

“Don’t take the first yes.”

“Take the right yes.”

It is a reminder that the most visible opportunity is not necessarily the most valuable.

A thoughtful festival and distribution strategy begins with understanding the film itself, the audiences it hopes to reach and the people best placed to help it travel.

Finding the People Who Care

The difficulties facing emerging filmmakers are rarely the result of one poor decision. Limited resources, industry expectations and the pressure to secure recognition can make it difficult to think beyond the next deadline.

Culley sees the same patterns repeatedly: filmmakers defining their audiences too broadly, leaving audience strategy until the film is finished, or pursuing prestigious festivals and sales agents without considering whether they are the right fit.

Her approach encourages a different kind of preparation, one that gives filmmakers greater confidence in both their creative choices and their plans for reaching viewers.

As streaming, artificial intelligence and changing viewing habits reshape cinema, Culley remains curious about new possibilities. Yet she believes human judgement and experience cannot simply be replaced by technology.

“I genuinely believe,” she says, “that a person—with a brain, a heart and experience—is stronger.”

For independent filmmakers, the journey from making a film to finding its audience will always involve uncertainty. A beautifully made film does not automatically attract viewers, and a prestigious premiere cannot guarantee its future.

But perhaps the most useful starting point is also the simplest.

Before asking which festival should premiere a film or which distributor should represent it, filmmakers need to consider who might genuinely care about the story.

Because a film does not need to reach everyone. It needs to find the people for whom it matters.