10/10/2011

A Separation (photo), Berlin 2011's Golden Bear winner by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, which is in Italian cinemas from October 21, will be the first work to make use of the integrated "on demand" distribution system launched by new digital platform Cineama.

Launched by a group of young creative people and experts in new media that was assembled by Fabrizio Mosca, with the support of Telecom Working Capital, Cineama aims to integrate and innovate film production and distribution mechanisms through crowd-sourcing models - the online community's collaborative practice of producing contents - and of crowd-funding, which is supporting production through financial contributions from future viewers.

Cineama, which is funded by the Roma Lazio Film Commission, recently signed a deal with Nanni Moretti's Sacher Distribuzione with the aim of enhancing traditional distribution through the use of the web and social media. The innovative mechanism of on-demand screening will integrate the normal distribution process, prolonging a film's time in cinemas following its release; users will have the possibility of expressing their desire to see a film, provide their location in Italy and to find other future viewers with whom they can share a viewing in their area.

"Internet engineers and finance experts were involved in order to find alternative solutions to the crisis that is conditioning young professional of the cinema industry," explained Tania Innamorati, Cineama's co-founder and project co-ordinator. Everyone knows that it is not easy to access institutional funding and in any case it can be difficult to finish a project and then see it distributed. That is why we thought of moving the requesting and acquisition of funding for specific film projects onto the net."

(Translated from Italian)