Film distribution for St. Louis filmmakers. Mann Robinson Distribution licenses independent films and series to Tubi and major streaming platforms.
Mann Robinson Distribution works with filmmakers in St. Louis and across Missouri, licensing finished independent films, television shows, sitcoms and reality series to major streaming platforms and networks, including Tubi. The company is an independent film and television distribution company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with presence in Detroit and Los Angeles. Submissions are open to filmmakers anywhere, so a St. Louis director can work with the company without relocating. Finished films can be submitted at mannrobinsondistribution.com/submit, and questions go to distribution@mannrobinsonstudios.com.
St. Louis has an active independent film community, supported by a reinstated state incentive, local grant money and a full festival calendar. That shapes what distribution has to do here.
The state level picture changed with the Show MO Act, signed in July 2023 and effective August 28, 2023, which reinstated Missouri's Motion Media Production Tax Credit. The program offers a 20 percent base credit that can rise to a maximum of 42 percent, under a $16 million annual cap split evenly between film and episodic projects, and it is administered by the Missouri Film Office within the state Department of Economic Development. The Department reported that 54 qualified productions spent $40.7 million in Missouri during 2025, employing 2,154 Missouri residents in cast and crew roles, with roughly $15.7 million in credits authorized. That mix included 13 narrative features, three documentary features, two narrative shorts, nine unscripted series, four scripted series and 23 commercials.
Locally, the St. Louis Film Office sits inside Explore St. Louis and has had a full time manager, Kelley Hiatt, since October 2023, following two decades as a location manager in Los Angeles. The office assists productions with permits, locations and logistics. On Fire was the first major production to shoot in St. Louis after the incentive returned, in fall 2023, and Chasing Summer shot in the city in summer 2025 before premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2026. Explore St. Louis reported roughly 1,400 filming days in the region across 2025. The city has a long location history behind that, from White Palace in 1990 and King of the Hill in 1993 to Up in the Air in 2009, which shot almost entirely in St. Louis.
The independent layer is the one most St. Louis filmmakers live in. Cinema St. Louis, the nonprofit behind the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival, programs the festival each November, roughly 300 films across about ten days. The festival began in 1992 and is Academy qualifying in shorts categories. The same organization runs the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, whose 26th edition ran July 17 to 26, 2026 at the Hi-Pointe Theatre with more than 60 films by local filmmakers. That 2026 lineup says a lot about the pipeline: 26 films from students at local colleges, 15 from first time directors and 25 from filmmakers under 30. Cinema St. Louis also programs QFest St. Louis, and the 48 Hour Film Project held its St. Louis edition August 14 to 16, 2026.
Production money for locals has been specific. The Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, partnering with Continuity, invested $500,000 through the St. Louis Film Project, awarding five local filmmakers grants of up to $100,000 each to produce documentaries and features, with 75 percent of the grant funds required to be spent in St. Louis City and projects completed by January 2026. The resulting work screened at the St. Louis Film Project Showcase, held at Alamo Drafthouse St. Louis. Training feeds the same pool. Webster University offers a BA in Film, Television and Video Production and is an official Unreal Engine Academic Partner, and Washington University in St. Louis has a Program in Film and Media Studies.
What that adds up to is a region producing a steady volume of completed, festival tested independent work. A film can finish a strong run through the Filmmakers Showcase and SLIFF and still need a route to an audience once the screenings end. That is the gap distribution fills.
Mann Robinson Distribution licenses completed independent projects to major streaming platforms and networks and manages the reporting and payment behind them. Specifically:
The terms are stated up front. The distribution fee is 20 percent of gross. The term is two years, exclusive. The filmmaker keeps ownership of the film, because the agreement licenses distribution rights and does not transfer the underlying property. Payments are made quarterly. Titles typically go live about 90 days from signing.
For a St. Louis filmmaker who financed through a grant, a tax credit position or private investment, those are the five points to have confirmed in writing before signing anything.
Go live is typically about 90 days from signing. That window covers the work between contract and public availability, including delivery and platform placement. Filmmakers planning around a festival premiere at SLIFF in November or the Filmmakers Showcase in July should count backward from the date they want the film available and start the conversation well before the festival run ends.
On ad supported platforms, earnings are calculated as impressions multiplied by CPM, not as a flat payment per view. An impression is an ad served against the film, and CPM is the rate paid per thousand of them. Earnings therefore track the impressions a title generates and the CPM those impressions carry.
Every filmmaker gets a portal login that shows impressions, CPM and earnings broken out per platform, alongside statements and full payment history. Payments are made quarterly, and the numbers behind each payment sit in the portal alongside it.
Have the film and its paperwork finished before you submit. Chain of title and deliverables are part of the submission, not an afterthought once the cut is locked. A practical checklist:
No. The company is headquartered in Atlanta with presence in Detroit and Los Angeles, and it works with filmmakers in St. Louis and elsewhere remotely. Films are submitted at mannrobinsondistribution.com/submit, and statements and payment history are in the portal.
No. Mann Robinson Distribution licenses distribution rights for the term. The filmmaker keeps ownership of the film itself.
Films, television shows, sitcoms and reality series. Both narrative and unscripted work fits, which matches the mix St. Louis actually produces.
Payments are quarterly. The portal shows impressions, CPM and earnings per platform, plus statements and payment history, so the figures behind each payment are visible in the account.
It mainly affects your paperwork. Bring the grant agreement and any conditions attached to it, along with the rest of your chain of title, so rights and obligations can be confirmed before signing.
Submit the finished film at mannrobinsondistribution.com/submit, or contact distribution@mannrobinsonstudios.com.