Major streamers are “throttling” the independent film ecosystem by “significantly underpaying” for pay 1 and pay 2 licence fees because of their commercial bargaining power, according to AGC Studios chairman and CEO Stuart Ford.

Ford, speaking on a panel titled ‘Embracing Risk’ at the Locarno Film Festival, also urged film distributors in Europe to “rediscover their capacity for risk” and suggested that the US distribution community is set to embrace pre-buying once again.

He was speaking alongside Berlinale festival director Tricia Tuttle and Element Pictures co-founder Ed Guiney at Locarno Pro’s StepIn think tank for distributors, exhibitors, producers, sales agents, institutions, festivals and streamers.

Ford lauded the streamers for being “tremendously active in investing in film an

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