Producer/Directors, Stewart Alexander and Kerry Skinner appeared on BBC quiz Pointless. They reached the final and won the £1,000 jackpot, and a Pointless trophy, by finding actors from Cult indie films. The films were: Lost In Translation, The Royal Tenenbaums and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Their answers Angelica Houston scored 6 and Elijah Wood scored 3 but Kristen Dunst was pointless, earning them the prize.
After the film didn't attract a distributor on the festival circuit, the producers secured a one-off screening at one London cinema on January 19th, 2014. It went on to sell out for nine weeks in a row (playing every Thursday and Sunday) at which point Picturehouse Cinemas offered to give the film a nationwide release in the UK on June 10th, 2014. It was the first film ever to receive a nationwide release through Picturehouse without a distributor attached.
On the night before the 2014 BAFTA Awards (The British version of the Academy Awards) host Stephen Fry tweeted this personal recommendation to his 9 million twitter followers: "Common People" is a rare gem, the kind that makes you thrilled to have discovered it. With no real expectations I started to watch this wonderful film, expecting a gentle reflective hour and a half - but "Common People" is so much more than that. With beautiful performances and a quiet firmness it pushes you to an understanding of human motive and love that is intensely moving and highly rewarding. I recommend this so highly."
The film had its world premiere at the Sedona International Film Festival in March 2013 where it was honored with the Independent Spirit Award in the Directors' Choice category alongside Any Day Now (2012) which won Best Drama and Liberal Arts (2012) which won Best Comedy.
The film's extended cinema run made it eligible for consideration in the 2014 BAFTA's (The British version of the Academy Awards) and it was screened for members at BAFTA Piccadilly in December, 2013. Though, in the end, it wasn't nominated in any categories, on the night before the awards, BAFTA host Stephen Fry tweeted this personal recommendation to his 9 million twitter followers: "Common People" is a rare gem, the kind that makes you thrilled to have discovered it. With no real expectations I started to watch this wonderful film, expecting a gentle reflective hour and a half - but "Common People" is so much more than that. With beautiful performances and a quiet firmness it pushes you to an understanding of human motive and love that is intensely moving and highly rewarding. I recommend this so highly."