Smaller Film Fests Push For Geoblocking

One of the internet’s most frustrating annoyances is geoblocking, the act of restricting video content to specific markets in order to allow local distributors to control the release of certain content under their own (and often higher priced) systems.

Sometimes there’s legal reasoning for doing so which is understandable, often its an economic one, and sometimes it’s just outright baffling such as in the case of promotional trailers (eg. AMC, Starz).

Now a group of eighteen smaller film festivals, led by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, has kick-started a campaign to persuade those film festivals running online editions this year to use the same technology for their content.

Numerous festivals have launched online editions after the cancellations of physical editions due to coronavirus pandemic, and this new initiative is reportedly aiming to protect the commercial potential of films – allowing other festivals to stage local premieres of the films.

In a statement, the group says: “It is important that festivals organizing digital screenings should limit them to their country in order to protect the audiovisual ecosystem in a digital environment, and not jeopardize the distribution of films in other countries, and their screenings in festivals and movie theaters, and on national streaming platforms and TV channels.”

The group are calling for more festivals to sign their statement, which can be found at JotForm.

Source: Variety

The post Smaller Film Fests Push For Geoblocking appeared first on Dark Horizons.

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