Celebrating American Fiction: A Bafta-Award Winning Satire, Taking Aim at the Publishing Industry
As soon as we saw the trailer with Jeffrey Wright leading a stellar ensemble cast we knew that the film would undoubtedly hold huge appeal for readers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, due to its very topical themes and satirical view of the publishing industry. We knew it would also resonate heavily with current conversations within the publishing industry around the pigeon-holing of writers of colour and its focus on trauma narratives, as well as tapping into recent publishing trends (The Other Black Girl and Yellowface being two recent releases that explore similar themes).
Our main aim for this campaign was to bring the film and publishing industries together with a call to action for continuous change, and to bring the film into the consciousness of the bookish communities across social media and beyond.
Hereโs a run-down of the elements we put in play to contribute to a multi-touch point staggered campaign plan over the course of pre-release and opening weekendโฆ
Events - Industry & Community Screenings
We celebrated with two pre-release exclusive events, one at Curzon Mayfair and the other at Curzon Aldgate. The first being an โindustry screeningโ for our VIP guests, content creators and members of the publishing industry which also included the streaming of an interview of Cord Jefferson (director) and Ellen E. Jones (journalist) which covered race within film, the publishing industry, and the careful nuance with which Cord handled his screen adaptation of Percival Everetโs 2001 book Erasure.
The latter screening was designed for our community and content creators, winners of various competitions, book-clubs and more.
It was vitally important to us, and to Curzon, to ensure that the โrightโ people were seeing this film; people from creative industries that needed to sit up, take note and learn a thing or two, as well as those who could champion the film from their own lived experience and perspectives.
We worked closely with Colour[FULL] and other BAME collectives within the publishing industry to guarantee that tickets were available to those who wanted them.
โWatched American Fiction at a pre-screening earlier this week with Colour[Full] at Curzon which was SO good! Felt myself yo-yoing between wanting to cry and bursting out with laughter. It had more heart than I thought it would from the trailer. The characters, both main and periphery, had so much nuance, all properly fleshed out with their own lives which we got to catch glimpses of. And its depiction of publishing and publishing attitude to race were spot on. Majority of the audience were publishing and creative industry people which meant we were laughing just a bit too hard at bits, very much 'is this play about us'.โ
- Mia Oakley, Co-Chair of Colour[FULL], Penguin Random House.
Partnership with Waterstones:
We were thrilled to secure a partnership with Waterstones which entailed a takeover of their newsletter, a competition for their Plus+ members, and an offering of additional tickets / book-bundle prizes available for customers and booksellers alike.
Paid Creator Partnerships with UK-based Book Clubs and Podcasters:
Working closely with Curzon we had the ability to celebrate regionally as well as within London, by sending Book Clubs to their local cinemas across release weekend - getting people into actual cinemas, and creating content on the ground to honour opening weekend.
We also had four paid-for Podcast Episodes go live throughout the โopeningโ period where creators were paid, and gifted tickets to their local cinemas, with full creative direction over their own episodes - we were keen to not censor any of the reviews and were delighted in the careful handling of the topics, with intelligent, creative and sensitive discussions across the board.
Not able to contain our own excitement, we even produced our own American Fiction Podcast Episode, as a bonus release of our Tandem Collective Talks podcast.
You can listen to the podcasts on the links available in our round-up here.
Private Screening - A Super Secret Screening at The Wellbeing Weekender
An offline โfirstโ for Tandem Collective UK, in January we held a โwellbeing weekenderโ in which we invited creators to down tools for the weekend and soak up some culture, rest and relaxation with us. Part of that weekend was an exclusive treat; a pre-release screening of the film, which built the buzz and guaranteed some early-praise when the film was released!
Content - Across Tandem Collective UK & Tandem Collective Culture throughout the whole activation
Which included, but was not limited to, snipping selections from the film audio to create bespoke, original TikTok sounds and designing creative challenges for our community to utilise these on their own platforms, celebrating โsilentโ reviews, American Fiction award awareness and more.
You can see a selection of our content here:
Silent Three Word Reviews
Content Round Up Reel
Our Script Readalong: American Fiction TikTok
A Tandem First: A Script Readalong on Instagram and TikTok with 30 book and film creators.
For the first time ever using this format, we engaged 30 creators from the Tandem community to watch the film at their nearest Curzon - building on the ambassador activity weโve been curating with Curzon. This was a mix of film and book accounts; a concerted effort to reach the right audiences and stretch audiences.
All creators received bespoke send-out packs ahead of time including some hotly coveted exclusive items. Exclusively for our content creators, we printed and bound the script of the film alongside a unique notebook branded in the theme of the book in American Fiction. (The book is called MY PAFOLOGY by Stagg R. Leigh).
We then led them in a Script Readalong, where we took our Readalong structure and applied it to the script of American Fiction, setting discussion points and creative challenges, as we would for a long-form novel.
โThe American Fiction project was THE best way to kick start a creative 2024. From the in person screening elements, to the dynamic and engaging content, to the community based script elements - it was all an absolute joy to be a part of and help orchestrate. The positive feedback was immense, and the film itself was worthy of every award it won. Bring on the next challenge!โ
- El Foster, Tandem Collective UK Project Manager
We are always looking for films to celebrate with our community - the literary nod within American Fiction was simply a bonus! We have huge fans of horror, crime, thriller, romantic comedies and more within our creators and we cannot wait to share our next film project with them.
If youโd like to have a discussion about a project of your own, please do email camilla@thetandemcollective.com with a brief, and weโll get back to you.
