“Access and Power: Film Distribution, Re-intermediation and Piracy” Virginia Crisp, King’s College London Various gatekeepers shape our film culture yet exactly who these intermediaries are and how they go about filtering the media content that makes it to audiences has yet to be examined in sufficient detail. Indeed, though distribution itself tends to be a largely overlooked area of the media industries in general, it has long been acknowledged as the route to power within the film industry (Balio 2013; Wasko 2002; Wasko 2003; Miller et al. 2004). However, as traditional forms of film and media distribution are arguably being ‘disrupted’ by piracy and new Video on Demand (VoD) services, the term disintermediation, that is where “the intermediary in a supply chain [is said to become] obsolete (Iordanova 2012: 3), has become de rigueur in many discussions of media dissemination. This chapter seeks to problematize such assumptions by asserting that, while the media landscape has undoubtedly changed and there are many new methods and means of media distribution, the process of disintermediation is not as pervasive as we might imagine. Through a consideration of both formal and informal distribution channels, this chapter will examine what players are able to influence how films and TV programmes reach audiences and the ways in which they are consumed? In such a context the term ‘re-intermediation’ might be better employed to describe the current