The evolution of online media sites like YouTube and Hulu as fully developed, mainstream entertainment platforms is spawning an infinite audience for engaging entertainment content that is resulting in a renaissance in content creation, be it a web series, feature-length or short films, tutorials or music videos, according to Scott Carroll, executive vice president & program director of Take 1 Entertainment Insurance.
During the past three years, Cinepolis has completed the exclusive installation of more than 3000 Doremi Integrated Media Block servers with ShowVault. Cinepolis, Latin America’s largest cinema chain has concluded its deployment in Mexico with 286 theaters that span 84 cities, and has expanded globally to operate over 3,000 screens.
The European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, has named Dr. Susanne Nikoltchev as its new director as of July 1.
Eagle Rock Entertainment has appointed More2Screen to distribute legacy concert film, Morrissey 25: Live, to cinemas worldwide (except North America) beginnging in August. Filmed live during Morrissey’s most intimate gig in decades at the Hollywood High School in Los Angeles on March 2, this is the first authorized Morrissey film for nine years and marks 25 years of the solo career of one of the world’s most iconic and enigmatic performers.
Mr Wolf and the Royal Opera House have announced an exclusive long-term agreement to distribute Royal Opera House operas and ballets to cinemas worldwide, beginning this autumn with the 2013-14 Season.
LMT Laboratory of Multimedia Technologies, a digital cinema and AV system integrator from Zagreb, Croatia, was awarded the public tender for the digitalization of independent cinemas as a part of the Croatian national digitalization project.
Cinedigm and Mondo Media have entered into a strategic content distribution partnership. Cinedigm will offer Mondo additional monetization opportunities outside of its successful YouTube channel, including theatres, VOD, home video and transactional digital outlets.
West Coast-based production companies Accomplice Media and The Joneses have joined forces under the Accomplice name. Executive producers Jeff Snyder and Mel Gragido will co-manage the company, overseeing a roster of 16 directors that includes award-winning filmmakers Don Burgess, Jeff Gorman, Vincent Laforet, David Jellison, Rick Knief and Hans Petter Moland, as well as the dynamic young directing team Sherpas Cinema.
Arts Alliance Media has announced that Germany’s UFA Cinemas has installed AAM’s theatre management software – Screenwriter – on their 41 screens across four sites, in Düsseldorf, Dresden, Stuttgart and Recklinghausen, to manage all aspects of their digital cinema operations.
[Editors Note: As has been widely reported, in recent weeks filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Steven Soderbergh have predicted that Hollywood will implode if the major studios continue to invest only in tent-pole movies and endless sequels. In a guest column Russ Collins, artistic director of the Cinetopia Festival, CEO of Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater and director of the Art House Convergence, takes exception.] Steven Spielberg is a gifted filmmaker whose impact on the art and business of cinema is arguably peerless. Steven Soderbergh is a gifted and important filmmaker. The aesthetic and financial success of both Stevens is unquestioned. However, both of these cinema icons have come out with almost bitter assessments of the future of movies recently. I believe these assessments are wrongheaded. Maybe it’s because the pessimistic assessments come from these two cinema idols that it makes me sad and a little mad.
