Many indie filmmakers hold on to the hope of film critics being champions of their films and thus helping them find an audience. It is true that critics will often take on a pet film each year that they will talk about incessantly and sometimes bring the attention due it. The problem is that you will not be that film. There are too many films released each year and too few critics with the power to influence opinion. Relying on a critic to save your film is not a marketing plan, it's a gambling problem. The ideal position to be in is where critics not only cannot hurt you, but anything they say helps spread the word.

Build An Audience Beforehand

The thing you must do if you want what critics say to always be used in your favor is build a fanbase before the release of the film. You can do it with extra short films made featuring the characters, you can do it with diary blog posts from the characters, or you can do it with podcasts of improvised phone conversations the characters do with each other. Do whatever you want to build the fans, but you must have fans before you release the film if you really want to harness the power of the critics and shield yourself from possible negatives.

Good Reviews May Bring More

Once you have a fanbase, critics will be your friend. If they love your film it will clearly bring your more fans. This may have also happened even if you had not built a fanbase already, but the thing that would not have been in place is a way to keep these new fans and a way to keep them involved while time passes and your movie is actually available for them to buy or at least watch. If you have put effort into making a community that loves your work, then these new fans that are curious due to a critic's persuasive review can simply join the tribe and there will be no problem keeping in touch with them.

Bad Reviews Galvanize Fans, Increase Exposure

Inevitably, if you are making a great movie somebody is going to hate it. It hurts to think that something so good could bring about any negativity whatsoever, but this happens to everyone. If you have a bad review and no fanbase, than you have nothing but a bad review. If also you have a fanbase you have an army that will deluge this reviewer with rebuttals. They will leave comments on blogs and poster counter-reviews. All the fan web sites combined will be there to balance this one critic's opinion. When people google your film this bad review will come up, but so will all the community web sites built by and for your fans that will help temper decisions about your film's quality. A bad review is better than no reviews, but if you have the community component already in place you can get the best of both worlds.

Don't just rely on your movie to speak for itself, give it some help. Come up with a way to get people into your film before it comes out and then let them help welcome new fans and counter any naysayers.