IFFR and Under The Milky Way team up to launch ‘IFFR in the Cloud’ and a dedicated Room on iTunes

42nd International Film Festival Rotterdam
23 January – 3 February 2013

PRESS RELEASE 23 January 2013

IFFR and Under The Milky Way team up to launch ‘IFFR in the Cloud’ and a dedicated Room on iTunes: itunes.com/iffr

In a new partnership with digital distributor Under The Milky Way, International Film Festival Rotterdam launches its own Room available on iTunes in the Benelux: itunes.com/iffr. As of today, viewers in the Benelux may discover or re-discover past festival favorites such as SHAME and A SINGLE MAN all conveniently presented in the IFFR Room on iTunes.

The partnership also includes ‘IFFR in the Cloud’, an innovative programme supporting filmmakers to access digital distribution for their IFFR-selected films.

IFFR director Rutger Wolfson: "IFFR has always been at the forefront of innovation in the film industry from a creative standpoint. It also continuously thrives by proposing great services to a large number of talented filmmakers from all over the world. While the festival attracts some of the most dynamic filmmakers of our time, many of their films do not find appropriate routes for their commercial distribution in every territory. Therefore I am very glad to be able to offer this new opportunity to the filmmakers and to new and larger audiences.”

Pierre-Alexandre Labelle, CEO Under The Milky Way: “Over the past couple of years, Under The Milky Way worked on the development of efficient tools for managing global VoD Distribution workflows. These include customised territorial distribution as well as clear and transparent reporting from the most prominent platforms such as iTunes. We feel that “IFFR in the Cloud” is a great project for filmmakers, and guarantees that films will be curated and commercially available in the best conditions possible; essential requirements to maintain a healthy and culturally-diverse film industry."

The IFFR Room offers a selection of festival favorites from previous editions like Steve McQueen’s SHAME, Philippe Falardeau’s MONSIEUR LAZHAR, Jason Reitman’s JUNO, Michael Mann’s THE INSIDER, Tom Tykwer’s THREE, Danny Boyle’s SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, Paddy Considine’s TYRANNOSAUR, Pieter Kuijpers’ GODFORSAKEN and Tom Ford’s A SINGLE MAN.

Additionally, it presents a selection of trailers from the current festival edition.

IFFR in the Cloud
Throughout the year, new titles from IFFR 2013’s Bright Future and Spectrum section will be added to itunes.com/iffr thanks to the ‘IFFR in the Cloud’ initiative. This new programme offers the possibility to filmmakers to put their IFFR-selected film on iTunes Benelux without any upfront investment and a possibility to extend to other territories. This first edition is limited to 30 films. In case there are too many films submitted to ‘IFFR in the Cloud’, IFFR will make a selection.

Profile Under The Milky Way
Under The Milky Way is an international company dedicated to digital film distribution and marketing.

Under The Milky Way works with an important number of global VoD Platforms, and was awarded the global iTunes preferred aggregator status in 2011. The company is fully operational on more than 60 territories and serves more than 200 rights-holders out of 10
regional offices in Europe, North America and Asia.

Under The Milky Way’s main activities consist of International rights aggregation and distribution on VoD platforms; the development of software solutions for online and social media marketing, and finally, the coordination of a European professional network addressing topics related to cross-border digital distribution.

Profile International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) offers a high quality line-up of carefully selected fiction and documentary feature films, short films and media art. The festival’s Tiger Awards Competitions, Bright Future and Spectrum sections contain recent work only, among which many world premieres. In its Signals section, IFFR presents retrospectives and themed programs. The IFFR actively supports new and adventurous filmmaking talent through its co-production market CineMart, its Hubert Bals Fund, Rotterdam Lab and Industry Office activities.

IFFR is one of the largest audience and industry driven film festivals in the world. During twelve festival days, hundreds of filmmakers and other artists present their work to a large audience (2012: 274,000 admissions) and 2,700 film professionals. The festival’s Official Selection includes some 220 feature films and 320 short films out of 60 countries.

The 42nd edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam takes place from Wednesday January 23 up to and including Sunday February 3, 2013.

(End of press release)

Press information Under the Milky Way:
[email protected]

Press information IFFR:
IFFR Press Office, Bert-Jan Zoet / Nancy van Oorschot, [email protected], +31 10 8909090