Jinga Films: the UK genre sales agent behind A Serbian Film

Overview

Jinga Films is a United Kingdom-based genre film sales agent and distributor founded by Welsh filmmaker Julian Richards, best known as the world sales agent behind two of the most controversial horror releases of the 2010s — A Serbian Film and The Bunny Game (Screen Daily; Flickering Myth). In 2020 it launched Danse Macabre, a horror distribution arm co-owned by Richards and Rosana Coutinho, which reissued The Bunny Game on US Blu-ray and DVD in summer 2025 (Love Horror; Flickering Myth). This profile is about the film company only — not the unrelated Chinese budget-smartphone brand sold in Russia under the same name (TAdviser).

From filmmaker to sales agent

Richards came to sales from directing: after putting his own money into The Last Horror Movie and needing to get it back, he moved into film sales as “the most immediate and accessible way” to learn the business side — and stayed (The People’s Movies). His directing CV runs through Darklands — which he describes as arguably the first Welsh horror movie — the BAFTA Cymru award-winning Summer Scars, Shiver (2012), Daddy’s Girl and Reborn, and the sales operation grew in parallel: from handling three films a year to ten, with the titles getting stronger (The People’s Movies). The scale-up is measurable — a more-than-threefold increase in annual throughput — and Richards dates Jinga’s arrival precisely: “by the time we released A SERBIAN FILM in 2012, we had established ourselves as one of the key genre companies in the World” (The People’s Movies). The company’s reputation titles, per Richards, span The Last Horror Movie, Rabies, A Serbian Film, The House at the End of Time, The Canal, Our Evil and Still/Born (Love Horror).

The controversy portfolio: A Serbian Film and The Bunny Game

Jinga’s two defining sales mandates took opposite paths through the censors. As Flickering Myth notes, Jinga was “the global sales agent behind A Serbian Film,” which “managed to get past UK censors with cuts,” while The Bunny Game “ran afoul of the British Board of Film Classification and was refused a certificate, effectively banning the film in the UK to this day” (Flickering Myth). Jinga sold The Bunny Game territory by territory: UK rights went to Trinity Films for its Trinity X label in June 2011, followed by Germany (Illusion Unlimited) and Scandinavia (Njuta), with a North American deal expected by the end of the American Film Market (Screen Daily; Screen Daily). That North American deal became the March 2012 US acquisition by Autonomy Pictures — which Richards himself negotiated on the filmmakers’ behalf — completing a sales chain in which one film passed the UK censors only after cuts and the other never passed at all (Bloody Disgusting).

Danse Macabre and the 2025 Bunny Game reissue

In 2020 Jinga launched Danse Macabre as a dedicated horror distribution arm for the English-speaking territories — the UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — co-owned by Richards and Rosana Coutinho (Love Horror). The label was designed to do double duty: distribute horror directly while acting as a horror sales sub-label inside Jinga, as the parent company expanded into wider genres including arthouse (Love Horror). Richards positioned it explicitly against a predecessor — “Taking our inspiration from former UK label Tartan Films, we will offer genre fans a selection of exotic titles that might never find distribution in the mainstream market” — and the 2020 slate (Antrum, The Ringmaster, Gags the Clown, Purgatory Road, All the Creatures Were Stirring) mixed theatrical and DVD/digital releases (Love Horror). The label’s arc came full circle in summer 2025, when Danse Macabre reissued The Bunny Game on US Blu-ray and DVD with a “Behind The Scenes – Caretaking The Monster” featurette plus trailer and teaser — fourteen years after Jinga first sold the film, and the same title returning through the company’s own label (Flickering Myth).

Year	Jinga Films milestone	Significance
2011	Sells The Bunny Game territory by territory (UK, Germany, Scandinavia)	Establishes the sales-agent role in the film’s release history
2012	Releases A Serbian Film; “one of the key genre companies in the World”	The company’s self-declared arrival as a top-tier genre outfit
2020	Launches Danse Macabre (co-owned by Richards and Rosana Coutinho)	Moves from sales into direct horror distribution
2025	Danse Macabre reissues The Bunny Game on US Blu-ray/DVD	The controversial catalogue title returns via the company’s own label

Frequently asked questions

Who founded Jinga Films? Welsh filmmaker Julian Richards — director of Darklands, The Last Horror Movie, Summer Scars, Shiver, Daddy’s Girl and Reborn. He moved into film sales after financing The Last Horror Movie himself and wanting to ensure he recouped the investment, then built Jinga from a three-films-a-year operation into one handling ten a year.

What films is Jinga Films known for? It was the world sales agent for A Serbian Film and The Bunny Game. Its wider reputation titles, per Richards, include The Last Horror Movie, Rabies, The House at the End of Time, The Canal, Our Evil and Still/Born.

What is Danse Macabre? Jinga’s horror distribution arm, launched in 2020 and co-owned by Julian Richards and Rosana Coutinho. It distributes horror films across the UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and doubles as a horror sales sub-label while Jinga itself broadens into arthouse and other genres.

Is Jinga Films connected to Jinga phones? No. “Jinga” is also a Chinese budget-smartphone brand sold in Russia — an entirely separate company with no connection to the London-based film sales agent profiled here.

Did Jinga reissue The Bunny Game in 2025? Yes. In summer 2025 its Danse Macabre label released The Bunny Game on Blu-ray and DVD in the US, with a “Behind The Scenes – Caretaking The Monster” featurette, the trailer and a teaser as extras.

Timeline

• 2011-06 — Jinga sells UK rights to The Bunny Game to Trinity Films (Screen Daily).
• 2011-11 — further Bunny Game sales: Germany (Illusion Unlimited), Scandinavia (Njuta); North American deal expected by end of AFM (Screen Daily).
• 2012 — Richards: by the A Serbian Film release, Jinga is “one of the key genre companies in the World” (The People’s Movies).
• 2020 — Danse Macabre launches as Jinga’s horror distribution arm (Love Horror).
• 2021 — Beast Within released August 2 in the UK, Ireland, Australia and NZ via Danse Macabre (Screen Daily).
• 2025 — Danse Macabre reissues The Bunny Game on US Blu-ray/DVD (Flickering Myth).

What we could not verify

• The founding year of Jinga Films: no full-read source states one, so none is asserted; the profile dates the company through Richards’ move into sales after The Last Horror Movie.
• The brief’s “newly scanned transfers, remastered audio” for the 2025 reissue: absent from the full-read Flickering Myth piece, which confirms only the release, the label and the listed extras. Not asserted.
• Rosana Coutinho’s role beyond co-ownership of Jinga/Danse Macabre.
• Whether the planned end-of-AFM-2011 North American deal for The Bunny Game closed as expected — later history is known only indirectly via the 2012 Autonomy Pictures US release.

Sources

• Screen Daily — Jinga scores sales on two horrors at Pre-Cannes Screenings (exclusive) (tier2; UK genre specialist; Danse Macabre launch timing)
• Screen Daily — Trinity picks up horror The Bunny Game for UK (tier2; Jinga as sales agent on the UK deal)
• Screen Daily — Jinga closes more deals for The Bunny Game; BBFC refuses to classify film (tier2; territory sales)
• The People’s Movies — Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween Interview - Julian Richards (Reborn) (tier3; founder history and scale)
• Love Horror — Jinga Films announce launch of Horror Distribution arm, Danse Macabre (tier3; Danse Macabre launch and mandate)
• Flickering Myth — Controversial horror The Bunny Game gets Blu-ray release from Jinga Films (tier3; A Serbian Film sales role; 2025 reissue)
• Bloody Disgusting — Autonomy Pictures Comes Out Playing ‘The Bunny Game’ (tier3; Richards negotiating the US deal for the filmmakers)
• TAdviser — Jinga (tier3; name disambiguation only)