ACQUISITION SUCCESS WITH OUR FIRST SOLD OUT EVENT!

On Thursday 28th August 2025, at the Cuban Embassy (it's a Bar, not the actual embassy), Twister Pictures held their first exhibition of 'Winona Forever'.

A fifty three minute feature film - imagine Inception meets Groundhog Day (but better). A Romantic Thrilller about Wesley who is given a drug that let's him re-experience his favourite memory. Driven by impulse, he consumes a month's worth of dosage and falls into a never ending loop of obsession over his first love.

Twister Pictures acquired the rights in May 2025 to distribute Winona Forever in the United Kingdom. Having only established themselves a month prior with an investment of £100 - marketing went into overdrive and a deal was struck for a pop up exhibition event at the Cuban Embassy, Birmingham. We believed in this project immensely. To lift the mood up and establish a fun night with us, we fused the night with Karaoke too.

Genuinely, we were so scared about our first event. We thought the world would swallow us if we failed that night. The lead up to our event wasn't promising either. Here were some of the adversities we faced:

• Ticket's weren't selling at a fast enough rate (Our hearts were sinking)

• We didn't have a projector screen.

• Also couldn't source a projector!

Nonetheless, our perseverance paid off. Everything came together as we had expected. Tickets sold like crazy towards the run up to our screening. Thus, we were very proud of ourselves. Yet, the biggest problem just arose.

The event was to start at 7pm. Two hours prior, we were planned to arrive to the venue to set up. Before leaving our apartment, we discovered that the film was not on our harddrive. In a sudden rush to download everything, due to internet problems at home - the download time was estimated to be done in 3 hours. We were on the verge of crying.

Due to expectations of the night - we had established a strategy:

1. Arrive to the venue.

2. Connect to the wifi and download our film (3 hour download time)

3. Set everything up (1 hour and 30 minutes)

4. Let guests arrive and get accustomed to the seating arrangements.

5. Hold Karaoke for an hour.

By then, we expected the film to have been downloaded - so we could screen it.

But NO! I mean sure, we did the first two steps but through the miracle of the Internet lords, the Wifi was much better than ours at home! The film downloaded in under 20 minutes, with enough time to test it on our projector screens. Everything became seamless. From here, no problems arose.

The night began...

The Venue manager put out 30 seats, whilst we tested our film on the projector. When we saw the seating arrangement, we approached him to let him know that in fact, he'll need to max out the space. He was shocked!

"We've not had a sold out venue in months! How'd you guys do that!"

- Nick, Manager of The Cuban Embassy.

The reaction was surprising. Due to our response and his impressed outlook at our efforts, he opened the bar upstairs too, something they've not done in ages.

That night was an exercise for RJ, our Sales and Acquisition Director and Host for the night. Not familiar with presenting in public, he arranged a stock of flashcards to address the crowd, in case he became nervous or began rambling on. But that was not the case. The energy of the crowd was electric. Sensational. The night began with Karaoke and to break the ice, RJ began singing first. He might not be the best but many others wrote their names down and began to electrify the crowd. Everyone was in a great mood and the atmosphere was party-like. An hour later, we offered a refresher break for the audience.

Once they came back, we got back to showing the film. And wow! What a reaction. Everyone's eyes were locked onto the screen. Not a word other than the sound systems could be heard. Our expectations for the film were true! The same feeling that RJ had when watching the film, he knew that audiences across the UK would feel the same. 45 people, plus additional audience members who bought tickets at the door - were locked in.

When the film finished screening, Archie Parker, the Director of the film provided everyone with a hopeful speech. Glad to see the film finally in front of a crowd. When we interviewed him afterwards, this is what he had to say:

“It's really cool to have an audience. The first time it was released there was me and four of my friends. Now there are 50 people today. It feels amazing. I’m really happy with how today’s been handled. It’s a night I’m going to remember for the rest of my life. My first ever film screening”.

-Archie Parker, filmmaker.

Acquisition Success With Our First Sold Out Event! We are extremely excited about the great outreach we had when marketing this event to people. Of course, we're new to the game of distribution and there is still a lot to learn - plus many more events to host. But the one thing we learnt was:

"Trust your gut instincts. Persevere. Research. And know your audience".

-RJ, Twister Pictures.

To wrap up this blog post, we also want to thank the incredible team that made our event possible. Firstly, Vishal Bhatia. A videographer/ filmmaker based in Birmingham was responsible for managing the event on the day alongside RJ. Providing assistance to set up the venue space and manage the karaoke and film projection process.

And lastly, Maz (Maheen Khan). We apologise for exposing the government name, lol. He was helpful in spreading the word amongst his crowd and helping us rile up numbers towards the lead up for our event. As a fashion designer, we'll be working with him soon when we begin to establish the merchandising head of Twister Pictures.

There are many more events to hold in 2026. Our journey began in April 2025, and we continue to stride across our failures and successes. According to BFI in 2022, there were 220 films produced in the UK. Only 1% or less gets seen by a British audience. Our goal is to acquire more content in the upcoming years so many more people get to see themselves represented in amazing, immersive stories.

We hold our own events. If filmmakers can make their own films. Distributors can hold their own events.

Stay posted for more details.