Contacting the owners of screening rights is a problem that every film society or club has. Unfortunately, if no one has the rights, or the rights holders can’t be found to give permission then you can’t screen the film.
The people who own the screening rights are usually the Australian distributor or the producer.
• If you have the D VD case, the rights holder is generally the studio or production company whose name is on the cover.
• If the production company is obscure you can go to www.classification.gov.au and type in the film’s title. The distribution company that has the Australian screening rights to the film will be listed as the applicant.
Other sources of information are:
If you are willing to spend $250 a year then a subscription to IMDBPro will give you access to information on the producer of the film and tell you who distributes the film in each country. IMDBPro offers a 30 day free trial period.
When you have found the distributor, make contact. The Australian film distributors contact details are here.
They will send you an approval to screen the film and then you can start publicising it.
And if you have any queries, you can always contact the AFSF.
Australian Film Societies Federation 