Distribution is how a film reaches an audience: buying the UK rights, dating the release, selling it to cinemas, marketing it, delivering the files and releasing it at home for years. The Film Distributors' Association has 51 member companies, a handful of studios take most of the money, and UK cinema admissions are still about 30 per cent below 2019, so the entry roles are few and mostly at the smaller independents in London. At Stage 1 you have never had a paid job in the industry, so do not apply yet: learn how a distributor works, read a box office chart properly, and get your Excel to a real standard. Stage 2 is placements, the FDA's paid trainee scheme, a reference and contacts. Stage 3 is a paid office assistant job. Tick what you have done, work on the rest, and take the gaps to an MFJF mentor. The Foundations course for this role covers Stage 1.
Read the career guide for what the job involves day to day.
Stage 1: Before your first job
26 things to do, know or be able to do
Experience 8
- Apply for work experience positions during the holidays.
- See if your university offers student placements as part of the course.
- Look for voluntary roles at film festivals to add career focus to your CV; the BFI takes volunteers for the London Film Festival and BFI Flare (18 and over, travel and food covered).
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Skills 7
- Further your knowledge of Excel in Microsoft 365.
- Take short courses in data analysis or handling numeric data if your background is in production or film studies.
- Rebuild the BFI's weekend top 15 in Excel every Monday, with your own site average and week-on-week columns.
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Knowledge 11
- Read this year's FDA Yearbook; it is a free PDF on the FDA website.
- Read Delivering Dreams by Geoffrey Macnab.
- Read The International Film Business by Angus Finney, 3rd edition (2022), for how films are sold and released now.
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Stage 2: Experience and contacts
24 things to do, know or be able to do
Experience 10
- Continue to look for placements: paid internships first, and any unpaid placement short and genuinely observational.
- Look for work experience in exhibition or film sales to understand how distributors work with them.
- Look up the FDA's Film Industry Paid Trainee Scheme: a nine-month office placement from June to March, paid at the London Living Wage, for new entrants with no more than twelve months of industry experience. The FDA page still shows the June 2025 to March 2026 round, so check whether a new round is open before you plan around it, and ask the FDA when the next one opens.
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Skills 7
- Practise your interview technique with friends and relatives; interviews are only nerve-racking when you have not had many.
- Continue to develop your admin skills.
- Make sure you are proficient at Excel: SUMIFS, XLOOKUP, pivot tables and a clean chart.
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Knowledge 7
- Research the company before each application and keep re-reading the job description.
- If you are receiving no response, go back to your CV and work out what is missing; do you need more experience?
- Do you know how the acquisitions representative from a distribution company operates at festivals and markets?
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Stage 3: Paid work
19 things to do, know or be able to do
Experience 7
- Do you have a CV with relevant placements?
- Can you operate Excel?
- Can you collate data?
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Skills 5
- Can you write a blog post, and the short social copy that now carries a campaign?
- Do you know how to run social media accounts on X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, and cut a short vertical video for them?
- Do you know where to look for release dates and what is in production?
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Knowledge 7
- Do you know how the industry uses the trades: Screen International and ScreenDaily every morning, and the box office section every Monday?
- Do you know the best way to fit into the office environment?
- Do you have a passport?
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Ways in for a distribution office assistant
Real schemes, checked on the organiser’s own page. A shut one is still here with when it comes back, because half the big schemes are closed at any one time and that is worth knowing.
- Trainee FinderScreenSkillsPeople over 18 who live in the UK and have less than 12 months of paid production experience in their chosen department. No on-set experience is needed, and there is no upper age limit.Final deadline 28 October 2026
- Yorkshire's Screen Diversity ProgrammeScreen YorkshirePeople aged 19 or over who live in York and North Yorkshire and have not done a Skills Bootcamp in the last 12 months. No screen experience or qualifications are needed, and graduates and career changers are welcome. Screen Yorkshire particularly encourages applicants from groups under-represented in film and television.Final deadline 2 November 2026
- Sara Putt Associates Trainee SchemeSara Putt AssociatesTwo professional credits but under three years' cumulative experience, in Camera, Sound, Edit, Production Office, Art, Costume, AD, Script Supervisor, Locations, or Hair and Make-Up.Final deadline 24 January 2027
Sources and References
This is MFJF’s own three-stage career plan for a distribution office assistant, written up from the career plan and the careers guide on our site. Open any of them yourself.
- MFJF career plan: Distribution Office Assistant (PDF) the original plan this page was written up from
- MFJF careers guide: Distribution Office Assistant what the job involves day to day
- The Three Career Stages the framework all three stages follow
Every link checked 19 September 2026. The plan itself was last revised September 2026.
