Join Now For Free
A kind of film company

Sales agents

Sales agents: who works there and what each of them does

A sales agent is the bridge between the people who make a film and the people who release it, representing the film the way a literary agent represents a novelist. It licenses the film to a distributor in each country, territory by territory, often long before the film exists.

Film sales in the UK is a small world: most companies have between five and thirty people, in a London office that looks like any other until you notice the posters and the shelf of screener discs nobody has thrown away. The company sells the same film many times over, country by country, and its year runs on the markets, two weeks in Berlin in February and two in Cannes in May, with the rest spent getting ready for them and chasing what was agreed at the last one. Its main asset is credibility with distributors, and that is spent every time a film is oversold.

  1. Managing director, CEO or head of sales

  2. Sales executive

  3. Sales coordinator

  4. Acquisitions executive

  5. Marketing and materials

  6. Legal and business affairs

  7. Delivery and servicing

  8. Finance

  9. Film sales assistantEntry-level job

Drawn from MFJF's own Foundations course Film Sales Assistant (what a film sales agent actually does; who is in the office and what your day contains; the map: chain, companies, path and the case studies), with MFJF's sales, distribution, marketing and exhibition map and financing a feature film map. The words are My First Job In Film's. © My First Job In Film 2026.

You are not doing this alone

You have your own personal career mentor

That is us, the MFJF team. Book an MFJF Mentor Session with us every month: we guide you through this journey and answer all your questions, from which job is yours to your CV and your next application.

Book my MFJF Mentor Session

Where next

Your recommended next steps

Picked for Film Sales Assistant. Signed in, they follow your stage and the roles your answers point to. See your whole MFJF journey, step by step →

  1. My MFJF JourneyOne page for everything MFJF has built, in the order you need it.
  2. My Reading ListThe books, blogs and bodies you have saved, in one place.
  3. Start the Stage 1 course: Film Sales AssistantTwo hours on what the job is, how people get in and what to do first.
  4. Get on the HotListPut yourself in front of productions looking for crew.
  5. Join MFJF DayPlayersDay work on productions for crew with the credits and the skills.
  6. The career planner: Film Sales AssistantWhat to do, learn and be able to do, from no experience to paid work.
  7. The career guide: Film Sales AssistantThe job, the day, the way in and the pay, in one guide.
  8. See how it all fits on the career maps17 maps of how films get made: the people, the process and the departments.
  9. Who works whereEvery department on a shoot and every kind of film company: who is in each and what they do.
  10. Industry EssentialsThe books, industry bodies, websites and blogs worth knowing, department by department.
  11. Read the MFJF Survival GuidesStraight answers to what everyone starting out asks: how long it takes, what you get paid, and what to do every day.
  12. MFJF Academy workshopsLive sessions with people who do the job, and the monthly career clinic.
  13. Build your CV with the CV BuilderThe industry's format, built from your profile and your current CV.

Matching Film Sales Assistant right now

Live from the Academy, the mentor programme, the Industry Essentials, the film course directory, Industry News and the competitions open now.

All workshops →
All mentors →
All Industry Essentials →
All film courses →
All Community Blog posts →
All trainee schemes →
All competitions →