How Chris Pratt, the Pope and Rotten Tomatoes are Powering Marketing for Oscar Contender ‘Fighting Spirit: A Combat Chaplain’s Journey’

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Fighting Spirit: A Combat Chaplain’s Journey is enjoying some unexpected awards season chatter, but earlier this year, the documentary couldn’t even secure a slot at Sundance — or any of the usual high-profile festivals. “I think we submitted the film to 30 film festivals, and all of them said, ‘No,’” reveals Fighting Spirit’s writer, director and producer, Rich Hull (the doc is co-directed by former Army Chaplain Justin D.

Roberts, who appears in the movie). “The one exception was the Newport Beach Film Festival, which allowed us to show an unfinished cut of the movie as an early preview.” Since then, the documentary — an examination of military chaplains who’ve been a guiding light for American soldiers battling enemies and complicated emotions on the frontlines — has received a groundswell of support from a pair of famous friends, as well as the United States Army, and some good, old-fashioned community word of mouth.

In September, actor Chris Pratt joined the Fighting Spirit team as an executive producer, instantly raising the film’s profile — especially on social media. “Chris is kind of a faith-forward guy and a big military supporter, so he checks those boxes,” Hull explains. “He also has 50 million Instagram followers, so when he posts a video about stuff, it gets a lot of attention.

We didn’t have the money to go out and buy TV commercials, or a bunch of ads and billboards on Sunset Boulevard.” With a lean $200,000 marketing budget for a film that cost less than $1 million to make, Hull was grateful for Pratt’s dedication to the project.  “The guy just had a baby (his third child with wife Katherine Schwarzenegger), and he was shooting two movies on the other side of the globe, yet he still was super cool