The 40th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will close on February 5, 2011 with sport biopic The Fighter , starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. Although the screening will mark the official end of the festival, IFFR has embraced new technologies to support film projects that run throughout the year.
IFFR Crowdfunding Experiment Cinema Reloaded
As funding for independent and experimental movies continues to dwindle, film makers are using their creative talents to come up with innovative funding and distribution models. Crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular way to get film projects financed.
Around a year ago, the International Film Festival Rotterdam launched its own crowdfunding experiment, Cinema Reloaded. Film fans were invited to make a token donation to the experiment, with the idea that a lot of people contributing a small amount would eventually generate the cash needed for directors Alexis Dos Santos and Ho Yuhang to complete two movies.
The minimum amount that each 'co-producer' was required to donate was €5. Hundreds of film fans around the world signed up, raising around €7,000. While this helped to get the projects off the ground, it falls far short of the target of €30,000.
Crowdfunded Movies Premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival
Even so, the movies were completed (presumably with borrowed money, although this is not clarified) and on January 30, 2011 they both had their world premieres at the Rotterdam film festival.
Malaysian film maker Yuhang made No One Is Illegal, a 30-minute documentary about six angry Indonesians who declare war on his homeland.
Dos Santos’ Random Strangers is "an experimental short that explores the relationship between a boy called Rocky and a girl called Lulu, and they live on opposite sides of the world and have a very intense relationship online," according to the Argentinian director.
At the end of the first year of Cinema Reloaded, the Rotterdam film festival says it will be looking to continue the project in 2011.
IFFR YouTube Channel Launched
IFFR has also launched its own YouTube channel. Along the same lines as IDFA TV, the film festival’s YouTube channel is a sort of online movie library of shorts and feature-length movies. The channel also includes movie trailers, a look behind the scenes of the Rotterdam film festival and interviews with directors.
Video on Demand Allows Viewers to Watch Movies Online
IFFR’s Video On Demand (VOD) offers the opportunity to watch movies online that were shown at previous editions of the film festival. Unlike the film festival’s YouTube channel which is free, VOD incurs a cost of €4-€5 per film.
The films on offer can be described as higher profile than the titles available on YouTube: award winners such as Tom Ford’s A Single Man, for which Colin Firth won Best Actor at the 2009 Venice Film Festival; and titles that have garnered wide acclaim, such as Wendy & Lucy, starring Michelle Williams, and a number of foreign-language films including the German Das Leben Der Anderen.
Like traditional video rental, Video On Demand allows viewers to 'rent' the movie for 48 hours, and gives them the freedom to watch it at any time within that period.
IFFR is not the first organisation to approach film making and distribution from a new angle. A Swarm of Angels was launched in 2006 with the aim of raising $1.5 million entirely through internet donations. This sum was reached and the resulting sci-fi movie, The Unfold, is currently being filmed. Other such mass collaboration projects will surely follow.
Cecily Layzell - Cecily Layzell is a food and travel writer and founder of restaurant review site www.eat-amsterdam.com.
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