At the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, acclaimed Chilean producer Juan de Dios Larraín highlighted a critical problem facing independent cinema: films that premiere at major festivals like Sundance increasingly struggle to secure distribution deals, leaving organisers concerned about their responsibility to the filmmaking community. Larraín, who recently co-founded Pijama, a platform dedicated to releasing independent films directly to audiences, argued that festivals themselves must evolve to address this market gap.

Larraín called for Sundance to establish its own distribution infrastructure, mirroring Karlovy Vary's existing KVIFF.TV streaming service. He framed the issue not as a scarcity of viable films, but as a connectivity problem: every film has a potential audience somewhere, whether thousands or dozens, yet lacks the infrastructure to reach them. By operating as both a discovery venue and distribution channel, festivals could ensure filmmakers can monetise their work whilst audiences gain access to films that might otherwise never be seen.