IndieFlix, a marketplace for independent films, has launched MyFestival, a new streaming video site that will let film festivals crowdsource the movie selection process. MyFestival is making its debut in conjunction with the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), which is taking place from May 22 to June 15.
For MyFestival’s pilot trial at SIFF, users will be able to stream and vote for any of ten films and ten shorts for free from now until June 8. After the deadline, the votes will be tallied and the winning film will be screened during one of the festival’s most prized time slots. Even the films that don’t win get something out of the deal - the site provides detailed demographic responses that let filmmakers tweak their distribution plans. The site has already forged deals with a number of other festivals, and major venues like Sundance are watching the results closely.
Getting a screening at a film festival can be very competitive, even with hundreds of festivals in the United States annually. Even if a film is screened, getting distribution is considerably more difficult - less than 1% of American films find meaningful distribution. IndieFlix CEO Scilla Andreen says that a new voting system could help expose many of these films to a much broader audience, with the ultimate goal of giving the audience a say in what films are shown at their local multiplex.
Of course, the new system is going to run into a number of problems. The prospect of screening an unreleased film in an uncontrolled environment is a movie studio’s worst nightmare - just plop a video camera in front of the screen and you’ve got a (low quality) copy to share across the internet. Many of the independent filmmakers involved in MyFestival were understandably hesitant to join, but Andreen says that for many of them, the “old school” method hasn’t been working, so they’re willing to try something new.
MyFestival is powered by GridNetworks, a Seattle-based video streaming service. Grid movies require users to install a small “connector” plugin that claims to offer HD quality material in a secure manner. IndieFlix was founded in 2005 and recently closed a $1.3 million Series A round of funding. For the time being MyFestival is totally ad free - the site hopes to finance the site through sponsorships after proving the system’s feasibility. Anther player in the indie film festival space is b-side.
This seems like a win-win. Content is good and being able to get to movies that are otherwise hard to find is a great. I will have to check this out a bit more (since lost (excluding finale) and survivor are done for now).
Great use case, good for both the online and offline folks..
Wow..great site. Will it be free?
@ Joke Cricket
It’s totally free. They’re fronting the bill for this festival, and my understanding is that they hope to keep it free (and get sponsors to pay for it).
I’ve been a film judge for a film festival and this really seems like a win-win, provided that you believe in the wisdom of crowds. I do. I think people who bother to go to a site, watch the films and then judge them will be pretty fair. They’ll also be motivated to go to the festival. After all, they helped program it! I think this benefit of programming a film festival is a great way of getting more attendees.
thats cool Jason, thanks
Another film festival with a seimilar modus operandi is the rather mysterious “theopendoor” festival. Here selection is both crowd sourced and juried. There are big prizes. Makers of top 15 films are given $10k to make another short and top prize for the popular vote there is $100k. Problem is, people game the site. They vote their friends up, everyone else down. It’s not really a good model. But, who knows, maybe this one will work better.
and now is the turn of music industry to get vanished?
Sounds good as long as they can do something to prevent gaming the system.
b-side (http://www.bside.com) is doing very well in the indy film festival space. surprised you didn’t mention them here
the views vs. voting is unrelated. We record the user id, film id and the vote. one vote per user. voting again only overrides the original vote.
Lonely Girl 15 happens to be in Perfect Sport - her fan base is huge and the filmmakers are working very hard to promote the film on MyFestival.
Simulacra was just nominated for a student Academy Award.
Another film just secured distribution.
we have stories on all films that we are sharing now. This is a good thing and it will only grow. i love these comments and we welcome all feedback.
THANK YOU!
You should take a look at haydenfilms.com. They’ve been doing something similar with a good amount of success for about 4 - 5 years.
Soon every idea any one ever had, good or bad, will be a blog post. No one will read them, except the person who had the idea. It will be just like real life, but with a lot more carpal tunnel syndrome.
Didn’t we used to just call this voting?
seeks to bridge the gap between film festival favorites and ever-elusive distribution.
Yeah Haydenfilms, Toofy Film Festival and a few others have been doing this for a while now, except to watch their films you dont have to register for yet another site and download yet another player that you’ll never use again to watch lame-o movies.
Given the distribution challenges and limited audiences for independent film cited in the post, online festivals are a great innovation. In addition to IndieFlix and the others mentioned above, Independent Features has also been running an online film festival in conjunction with Lycos Cinema from May 5 to June 30. Screenings are done online through Lycos Cinema’s recently revamped service, which allows indie film fans to watch movies together, discuss them in real-time and then vote. It removes the isolation from the online viewing and voting process and more closely reflects the festival nature of traditional offline events. Voting on hundreds of features and shorts is ongoing and open to the online public, and the winning films will be shown in late July at the Tribeca Cinemas in New York. Seeing how that the online format is particularly beneficial for independent filmmakers, Lycos is looking to use its Cinema platform for other indie festivals as well. Full disclosure – I know about this because I work with Lycos. Check it out here: http://cinema.lycos.com.
I hate to download anything too. but I understand for now it is necessary for efficient geo-filtering and collecting basic demographic data for the filmmakers to be able to focus their distribution efforts. It’s also a competition and festival exhibition not just a free movie giveaway for 16 days. we really want people to help program.
There are no ads, no pre-rolls and no credit cards necessary. I think putting in your email and downloading a connector to watch, vote and support indie film is not so much to ask. you can also watch full screen and you are not required to watch every single title. I like what Hayden is doing but you can’t watch full screen and you must register to vote.