April 22, 2009 08:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time
WASHINGTON--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--SnagFilms
today announced it had entered into Founders’ Alliances with three
landmark film festivals and two prominent independent film industry
organizations, in order to bring more non-fiction films to broader
audiences via the web, and to extend the reach of the organizations
considered to be the foundation of support for independent film.
Additionally, to enhance the digital distribution of documentary films,
SnagFilms will make it significantly easier for documentary films
screened at more than 100 different film festivals to quickly find an
online audience. Further, the company detailed its performance metrics
for its first eight months of operations.
“SnagFilms provides a platform that we feel gives filmmakers an
incredible opportunity to extend the impact and enthusiasm we
consistently experience from thriving festival audiences”
Five prestigious organizations will kick off the Founders’ Alliances.
The film festival participants include: Hot
Docs (Canadian International Documentary Festival, which begins
April 30th in Toronto), Outfest
(The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which runs from July 9th-19th),
and Full
Frame Documentary Film Festival (the North Carolina-based
documentary film festival which recently ran from April 2nd –
5th.) The film organizations include the film competitions
group, CINE,
and the International
Documentary Association.
SnagFilms brings the best nonfiction films to the web audience, promotes
viral web distribution through virtual movie theater widgets, and
engages viewers to assist in charitable and community efforts. SnagFilms
will extend its distribution network, audience, and web tools on behalf
of the organizations that have traditionally nurtured and celebrated
filmmaking talent. The alliances will bring more films to digital
audiences; extend festivals into year-round worldwide presences
unconstrained by limited theater space; and increase the number of films
they may spotlight.
Components of the Founders’ Alliances include:
Channels on Snagfilms.com for each festival and organization,
providing free, complete viewing of films they will select from titles
that have received current or past festival screenings;
Online recognition for festival sponsors;
Direct connection from snagfilms.com pages to the Founder’s site, with
calls-to-action for public support of these non-profit organizations
and links to event ticketing;
Links from Snagfilms.com and the festivals’ and organizations’
websites to the indieWIRE.com resource page on the organization, as
well as to indieWIRE’s coverage of the festivals and other award
events;
Branded multiplex “virtual film festival” widgets featuring the
organizations’ selected films for “snagging” and viral distribution to
any website – including blogs and social network pages;
Platforms for future film co-premieres and online–only festival
screenings;
Jointly-developed further initiatives to benefit filmmakers, festivals
and other non-profit support organizations.
“Film festivals and industry organizations have always played critical
roles in selecting, nurturing and honoring filmmakers,” said Rick
Allen, SnagFilms’ CEO. “They often provide the first way for fans of
indie films to see some of the genre’s most creative and important
works. We want to recognize their leadership, as well as bring the films
they spotlight to a worldwide audience unconstrained by the limitations
of physical distribution – too few theaters showing non-fiction films
for runs that are all too brief. Curated distribution of non-fiction
films through our network becomes another element of the services
provided to filmmakers by these leading organizations.”
“SnagFilms provides a platform that we feel gives filmmakers an
incredible opportunity to extend the impact and enthusiasm we
consistently experience from thriving festival audiences,” said Sean
Farnel, Director of Programming at Hot Docs.
“Outfest is thrilled to be partnering with SNAG and providing audiences
with another great way to view high-quality LGBT documentaries,” said
Kirsten Schaffer, Executive Director at Outfest.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with SnagFilms and look forward to
supporting the work of filmmakers by helping provide well deserved
visibility and wider audiences for the documentaries screened at Full
Frame,” said Jill DeWeese-Frank, Director of Development for Full Frame
Documentary Film Festival.
“CINE has been ‘giving filmmakers wings for 50 years’; Ted Leonsis and
SnagFilms are giving them a whole new flightpath, and we’re delighted to
be part of that,” said Wendy Revel, Executive Director for CINE.
The announcement comes in the midst of the festival season, just after
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, and
before the 2009 CINE Awards (including the organization’s recognition of SnagFilms’
founder and Chairman Ted Leonsis as “Trailblazer” of the year.) The
alliances also follow on the heels of the March co-premiere of The
Least of These at the South by Southwest Film Festival and on
SnagFilms. (The Least of These was the third time SnagFilms has
co-premiered a film in conjunction with a film festival. Previously, Haze
and The End of America were co-premiered by SnagFilms and the
2008 Hamptons International Film Festival.)
“Working with SnagFilms as a critical part of our distribution plan has
allowed us to reach large, diverse and motivated audiences, and to reach
them quickly,” said The Least of These producer Marcy Garriott.
“The cooperative and creative approach taken by SnagFilms dissolves the
boundaries that have limited the reach of films in the past.”
In related news, SnagFilms announced its “Festival-Approved” feature,
making it easier for filmmakers whose work has been screened at any of
more than 100 international film festivals to submit their films for
expedited review and distribution by SnagFilms. “Since launch last
summer, every film in our 650-title library has been individually
curated by our editors,” Allen said. “Because we respect the curatorial
excellence of festival programmers, we can streamline the submission
process for individual filmmakers. Now, if a filmmaker’s work has been
selected by any of more than 100 festivals on our extensive list, we
will automatically recognize that film’s quality and use a simple web
application and online submittal to expedite its distribution through
SnagFilms.”
In recent weeks SnagFilms has announced distribution deals with such
prominent video sites as Hulu and YouTube. (Since distribution via
Hulu’s documentary channel began in March, those documentary films made
available via SnagFilms have regularly been among the top documentary
films streamed on any given day.)
Today SnagFilms also updated certain metrics it has been tracking since
its July 2008 launch, and announced upgrades to its delivery system and
the user experience. These include:
Widgets containing one or more films from SnagFilms’ library have
appeared on more than 21,000 different web pages;
These widgets have been seen more than 500 million times;
Films in the SnagFilms library are now being viewed more than 2
million times a month, on its websites, via widgets, and through
portal partners like Hulu.com;
SnagFilms’ partners are deeply integrating its titles into relevant
editorial content throughout its distribution network; particularly
noteworthy have been the widespread contextual use of the films
throughout the AOL network, including around news pages;
SnagFilms will be presented later this month via a new player, from
Brightcove, which will feature new functionality include easier
bookmarking of partially-viewed films;
SnagFilms’ new Facebook application (http://apps.facebook.com/snagfilms/)
will increase the viral distribution of SnagFilms’ library by letting
Facebook members build their personal library from SnagFilms’ titles,
watch, comment, and rate films, see their friends’ libraries and
recommendations, and recommend films to their friends;
The library is also available already via the Miro HD Video Player.
About SnagFilms
SnagFilms
features free ad-supported viewing of more than 650 award-winning titles
from some of the greatest
names in documentary film production and distribution. Since its
launch in July 2008, SnagFilms virtual movie theater widgets have been
seen 500 million times, on more than 21,000 web pages, including those
of The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and
Politico, hundreds of blogs, and thousands of social network pages like
Facebook. OVGuide named SnagFilms a Top Site of 2008.
indieWIRE,
the 13-year old leading news, information and networking site for
independent-minded filmmakers, the industry and moviegoers alike, has
been a vital part of SnagFilms since its acquisition in August, 2008.
The company was founded by digital entrepreneur, documentary film
producer, professional sports teams’ owner and philanthropist Ted
Leonsis, and is additionally backed by AOL co-founder and Revolution LLC
Chairman, Steve Case, philanthropist and former digital executive Jean
Case, operating executive, philanthropic venture capitalist Miles
Gilburne, and a group led by Ted and Jim Pedas, founders of Circle Films.
Contacts
SnagFilms
Media:
Noah Black, 202-295-8797
noah@snagfilms.com
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