The role of film critics and how important are awards in marketing films.

Bad film reviews can be publicised and allow the film to gain a buzz. Philomena (Frears, 2013) was able to use a one-off criticism to their advantage as a marketing technique. This is because a review branded Philomena as an 'attack on catholics' therefore to market Philomena, the criticisms were placed in the marketing campaign so the audience can 'decide for themselves'.
Film critics obviously have some sort of impact but are not as influential because of the rise of the sites such as IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Mark Kermode's Blog. In addition, for example, mass consumers will go and watch the film regardless of the critics because such films which have such as a mass appeal or a hugely saturated films, people will go and see the film regardless. Furthermore, the fans of a film which has inherited a book series or a sequel, will always attract audiences even though the reviews may be terrible as consumers want to see the film because the audiences want to see the film regardless of the bad nature of the film. In contrast, the people with a niche group of film are more likely to listen to the film.
In this digital age, films are marketed over social media sites have led to the rise of the blogger and online reviewers through sites such as YouTube and potentially other streaming sites. An example, of a successful film critic YouTuber is Jeremy Jahns who has just over 600,000 subscribers.

Award Nominations boost a film's popularity as if a film is nominated or win an award then it gives this sense that these films will be great films. Furthermore, when films with a chance of a award nomination are released in November so it gains attention and has a chance of winning an award in February and March. This is time for the film to release DVD materials or re-release the film if it does well at the Oscars.

Independent British films rarely break into the UK film industry and cinema, this is because these films do not have any distribution or any American financial backing from the 'Big Six'. Co-production is vital to the success of British Films as they need these 'Big Six' to help them and unfortunately these British Films aren't getting these distribution backing therefore these UK films cannot break into the UK film cinema.

Another issue with British Film is that it lacks an issue of 'identity' as the films are too gritty, realistic and potentially depressing therefore it turns the viewer of from going to see the film. Even British comedies still focus on class and realism as sometimes British Films are too close for comfort whereas American Films are in effect the opposite. Self-deprication is foundation of British comedy which is why Working titles are so successful as American like this type of humour.