Arts
Skint Film Company’s £7k Movie Among Best New Films to Stream in 2023: A Rags to Riches Success Story
The bootstrapped UK film studios’ £7,000 production, Lottery, is now available to over 80 million streaming users worldwide on Plex and Tubi. It’s four-out-of-five UK Film Review accolade makes it one of the most successful new films to stream in the UK this year. Success has put the Skint Film Company on the map as a fully self-sufficient UK independent movie studio, with a second feature film, Talking to Ghosts, lined up for release in summer 2023.
Described as “Beautiful and dramatic” by the UK Film Review, Lottery is the brainchild of one of the most exciting upcoming British filmmakers, Ryan J. Smith, a previous festival darling and now maverick producer. Financed solely by Smith himself and produced on a bootstrap budget of just £7,000, the film has landed on Plex and Tubi, where it is available to upwards of 80 million streamers worldwide, with more platforms and even more exposure to follow soon.
Following the success of Lottery, the Skint Film Company will be releasing its second full-length feature film, Talking to Ghosts, this summer. Further feature releases are also in the pipeline for 2024 and beyond.
Its efforts in bringing compelling drama to the streaming space on a shoestring budget are disrupting the prevailing movie paradigm that big bucks funding is needed to create and shoot high-quality films. The Skint Film Company is now firmly on the map as one of the UK’s fully-armed and operational independent movie studios to watch for the future.
Commenting on the success of the Skint Film Company so far, founder, producer and director Smith says, “I’m excited to have a full slate of feature film projects with international releases for this year and beyond. I’m proud to say they’re all homegrown and made precisely how I wanted to make them.”
“Hopefully my movies send a message to young and emerging filmmakers that you don’t have to wait to be rescued. Never fall prey to other people’s laziness. If you have a movie to make, make it. It’s as simple as that. The rest falls into place naturally.”
A tense thriller, Lottery tells the story of a young man navigating love and loss in the aftermath of a lottery win. Pro Moviemaker magazine hails the movie as being “every bit as atmospheric as a film with an army of technicians.”
Alongside glowing reviews, leading man Mitchell Fisher, who plays lottery-winner Lee, has been awarded the Best Actor gong at the Maverick Film Awards for his interpretation of the role.
Lottery is available to stream for free in the UK on Plex now.
The Skint Film Company is MetFilm School graduate, Ryan J. Smith’s, rags-to-riches foray into the feature film space. One of the UK film production companies shaking up the streaming scene, Lancashire-born Smith has built Skint from nothing into a successful, self-sufficient studio turning out feature films, shorts, animated movies, and documentaries.
Its back catalogue includes the critically-acclaimed foray into the Amsterdam jazz scene, “Red Light Solo”, which won five Best Documentary Features awards, including an accolade from the London Film Awards in 2019.
Talking to Ghosts, will be released in the summer of 2023. For more information visit https://www.skintfilmcompany.com/.