Dear Collaborators,

We’re back with News from Sundance and Berlinale and gearing up for our official launch in March (we’re still in Beta phase). We're also announcing our first Advisory Board.

Please check out TFC coverage in a Berlinale daily issue of Variety and a second Variety article (2/25/10).

In handling worldwide sales for THE OWLS (directed by Cheryl Dunye) as well as worldwide Festival distribution, TFC closed deals in the UK, France, and the United States, with several other territories, including Germany, in the works. TFC is proud of its client, Sundance Audience Award winner UNDERTOW (aka Contracorriente, directed by Javier Fuentes-Lèon), which got a US distribution deal for home video, VOD/digital (via Wolfe) and television (will air on HBO Latino). TFC will continue to handle theatrical distribution in the US and festival distribution worldwide.

In addition, to bolster the international sales of its films, TFC will be partnering with veteran sales agent Ariel Veneziano of Recreation Media on the foreign sales for select titles. Veneziano’s extensive sales experience includes stints as head of Icon International, head of sales for GreeneStreet, and director of motion picture sales and international home video distribution at Alliance Atlantis Entertainment Group.

The Film Collaborative is also proud to announce the first members of its Advisory Board: Ruby Lerner (executive director, Creative Capitol), Rose Kuo (former Artistic Director, AFI FEST), Ted Hope (producer), Karol Martesko-Fenster (SVP - General Manager, Babelgum, and co-founder of indieWIRE), Effie Brown (producer), Kathryn Galan (Executive Director, National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP)), Alex Barkaloff, (EVP Digital Media, Lionsgate), Sydney Levine and Peter Belsito (Film Finders), Meredith Scott Lynn (Actress and Filmmaker), Roberta Marie Munroe (filmmaker, author and former Sundance shorts programmer), Steve Mason (independent theatre owner and journalist for ESPN), Ken Rutkowski (new media tech journalist/entrepreneurial fundraiser), and Cherie Song (entertainment and real estate attorney, McGuireWoods LLP). Additional names added soon.

Please note: TFC is doing direct distribution, especially on the theatrical/non-theatrical and VOD/digital distribution front. We will be announcing our direct-distribution slate in the coming weeks.

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film/client update:

TFC is doing distribution consultation for ALL ABOUT EVIL (directed by Joshua Grannell, starring Natasha Lyonne); distribution and contract consultation for the Sundance 2008 selection ADVENTURES OF POWER (dir. Ari Gold); contract consultation for the 2009 SXSW Winner MADE IN CHINA (dir. Judith Krant); contract consultation for Jon Reiss’ BOMB IT 2; theatrical distribution, festival representation, and digital distribution for EYES WIDE OPEN (Cannes & TIFF 2009, dir. Haim Tabackman) (and one of our partners, First Run Features, will do home video); distribution consultation for A CUSTOM MARY (Dir. Matt Dunnerstick); consultation on distribution strategy for Sundance Special Jury Prize Winner GASLAND (Dir. Josh Fox); and distribution/contract consultation for Prodigal Sons (directed by Kimberly Reed), which was recently featured on Oprah and is also being distributed by our friends at First Run Features. We’ll have many more films to talk about next newsletter.

TFC is also working on a Yelp-type application for Indie Film Distribution…

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informational tibits for the road:

“Roughly 40 percent of Americans do not have high-speed Internet access at home, according to new Commerce Department figures that underscore the challenges facing policymakers who are trying to bring affordable broadband connections to everyone" FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday he wants 100 million U.S. households to have access to ultra-high-speed Internet connections, with speeds of 100 Mbps, by 2020. That would be several times faster than the download speeds many U.S. homes with broadband get now — 3 Mbps to 20 Mbps.Genachowski also wants the U.S. to test even higher broadband speeds. One such testbed network could come from Google Inc., which said last week it plans to build a few experimental fiber-optic networks that would deliver 1 Gbps to as many as 500,000 Americans. That would be 10 times faster than a 100 Mbps connection.”

— 2/16/2010 AP/CED Magazine

and from WIRED MAGAZINE:

It was thrilling to us to read in WIRED magazine that Google refined its algorithm to deal with synonyms, and was inspired by one of Orly Ravid's favorite philosophers, Ludwig Wittgenstein's theories about how words are defined by context — “the meaning of the word is its use,” Wittgenstein said. Speaking of google search and algorithms, TFC reminds all you filmmakers: search and link to your film's site to generate higher page ranking, and also have friends pre-order your film on Netflix for best NFLX SVOD fees.

Yours truly,

The Film Collaborative

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