This tale of a man falsely accused of child abuse promises a return to form for Thomas Vinterberg, co-founder of the Dogme 95 movement, whose debut was the 1998 Cannes Jury Prize winner The Celebration.
CANNES – Online VOD movie site MUBI is set to roll out in Scandinavian this summer, with a launch in Norway July 17 followed by bows in Sweden and Denmark shortly afterwards. The move follows MUBI’s launch in Turkey two months ago.
“Our territorial focus is shifting,” said MUBI boss Efe Cakarel speaking at a press breakfast in Cannes Monday. “The U.S. market is taken, with Netflix and Hulu dominating everything but internationally there are several opportunities. We see Turkey and Scandinavia as our two most interesting markets, when we look at the tech and social-media savyness of the audiences there.”
The Scandinavian versions of MUBI will be similar to its Turkish operation: a localized, subscription-based model with a curated selection of films and a very low point of entry, with subscriptions set in the range of $5-$6 a month for 30 films.
MUBI has also signed a deal with Scandinavian production and marketing body Nordisk Film & TV Fond which will see Nordisk put up 1 Million Danish Crowns (around $170,000) towards the promotion and marketing of Scandinavian films on MUBI’s site worldwide.
The promotion program will kick off in July and run till the end of the year, after which Nordisk will assess it and decide whether it should be extended.
Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, whose new film The Hunt premiered in Cannes Competition Sunday night, attended the MUBI-Nordisk breakfast to promote the idea of distributing Scandinavian films online to the world.
Vinterberg admitted he was “religous” about trying to get people to see his films in the cinema, but acknowledged that directors “have to follow the audience.” And some films, Vinterberg admitted, work better on the electronic screen.
“My first movie, (the digitally-shot Cannes Jury Prize winner) The Celebration doesn’t deserve to be on a big screen,” Vinterberg said. “It’s actually made for cellphones.”
