27/02/2013 - Ten European countries will participate in the spring in the first experiment with “day-and-date” releases on screens and VOD, managed by the ARP

After a controversial announcement last autumn (article and Michel Hazanavicius’s tribune), The TIDE Experiment project will be tested out this spring with the Franco-Swiss documentary Viramundo: a journey with Gilberto Gil [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud (photo – sales handled by Urban Distribution International). The film will be launched in cinemas and via VOD between April and July in ten European countries: France (Urban Distribution), the United Kingdom and Ireland (Soda Pictures), Italy (Nomad Films), Lithuania (Kaunas), Poland (Gutek), Portugal (Alambique) and in the three Benelux territories (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg - Brunbro).

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Florence Gastaud, general delegate of the ARP (Société Civile des Auteurs, Réalisateurs, Producteurs),which manages TIDE, pointed out that : "This widespread participation underlines just how much European members of the cinema industry are waiting for new opportunities. It also demonstrates the legitimacy of experimenting with new models of pan-European distribution, the potential complimentarity of releases on VOD and theatre screens, and the regulatory developments surrounding the chronology of the media.” This enthusiasm will nevertheless have to be verified in detail with this relatively flexible “day-and-date” system, as the releases of Viramundo: a journey with Gilberto Gil have been announced under the rather vague description “simultaneously or almost simultaneously on screens and via VOD”, and since the four months allotted to this experiment in the ten various countries constitute a relatively long period. But this is obviously only a beginning...

Backed by the Media Programme of the European Union, The TIDE Experiment (which links the ARP, Europa Distribution, The Film Agency and Under the Milky Way) will coordinate a total of ten releases on screens and VOD platforms, covering technical and local and international marketing costs, as well as offering transversal marketing services. The next three films to be launched in 2013 (with Fandango Portobello, Goldcrest Films International and Wide) will be announced over the next few weeks. 

(Translated from French)