About Dawson's
Dawson's is an independent film sales agency in London, founded by Joey Dawson. We represent a small number of independent features for international sale, test them with audiences before we take them to market, and build the demand.
Why we started
I see films arrive at the market without an audience.
The key questions every buyer asks — what's the genre? who is this for? — had no answers. The producers hadn't thought about them.
The mismatch is structural. The people who know what the market needs aren't in the room when the creative decisions are made. The people making the creative decisions rarely have a clear picture of what a buyer in a specific territory is actually looking for. The film gets made, and then the sales questions are asked, and often there are no answers.
Dawson's was built to correct that. Not to change how films get made — the film is the film — but to ensure that by the time a film reaches a buyer, it has a market destination: a defined audience, evidence of demand, and the kind of buzz that ensures a successful release.
A film with an audience and provable word of mouth is an exciting prospect.
Joey Dawson, Founder
Joey Dawson has worked across film and theatre for over a decade, as a producer, a sales agent and an analyst.
He founded Reid Productions in 2018 and produced independent features from development through delivery, covering script development, financing, production and distribution strategy. Before that he was Chief Executive of Wildcard Theatre Company from 2015 to 2021, running strategy, finances and fundraising alongside the company's Artistic Director.
He has worked in international sales, representing an independent feature slate to buyers across theatrical, television and streaming, and supporting negotiations on minimum guarantees, term, media, windows, holdbacks and delivery. He has worked at all major markets: EFM, Cannes Marché, AFM.
In 2024 he founded Screen Vault, an IP analysis service combining retail sales data across 13 territories with audience signals from more than 20 platforms to assess which properties can carry a film.
He has been a Producer at the National Theatre, making digital content around its productions. He trained as an actor at the Oxford School of Drama and studied producing and film finance at the National Film and Television School.