The Disney-distributed film will be released in Western Australia, with festival screenings in Europe and potential UK/France distribution deals.

Producer Trish Lake admitted that Subdivision disappointed in NSW and QLD, but the team has new strategies to ensure it reaches an audience in Australia and overseas.

“I’ve got investors who want to feel like we’re going to the wire, and that’s what we’re doing,” Lake told Encore. “Subdivision has had a tough time, but it hasn’t given up. We haven’t given up.”

Written by and starring Queensland radio personality Ashley Bradnam, the comedy/drama was directed by Sue Brooks and distributed by Disney in Australia, with an estimated budget of $4m and a box office result of $206,350.  It was released in August 2009 in Queensland and New South Wales only.

“It was always our ambition to do well in Australia, but when we started the rollout we were not getting the traction and we put a hold to it. It is a good film, and unfortunately we have not been able to find audiences in Australia yet,” said Lake.

“It’s very hard to make the sort of noise you need, even with a significant campaign such as the one that Disney brought to life. They were very solid, but we could not get the film somewhere between art house and multiplex cinemas,” admitted Lake.

But not all is lost and Subdivision will make its comeback to Australian screens, with further screenings in Western Australia in April.

“We’ll do a much more targeted campaign. We’ve learned from what went wrong with the QLD and NSW rollout, and we’ll be targeting by using special date screenings rather than a big first weekend wide release.

“Then we might be able continue to do that type of roll out in the other states and potentially we’d even come back to QLD and NSW,” explained Lake.

Additional lessons have been learned from the results of other films, such asMao’s Last Dancer and Bran Nue Dae; Lake says they have been analysing how and why audiences have engaged with ‘feel-good’ films with very targeted campaigns.

According to the producer, they have Disney’s ‘blessing’ for this new cinema strategy, but there is also pressure to release the DVD.

The film recently played at the Antipodes Film Festival in St Tropez, and will screen tomorrow night at a special presentation organised by the Australian embassy in Paris. Subdivision has also been accepted to play at the Barbican Film Festival in London next month and at the Cannes Cinephiles’ Cinema des Antipodes section at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Lake said she was ‘hopeful’ of reaching a French and UK distribution deal later this year, with interest from French distributors generating after the audience’s positive reaction at the St Tropez screening.