The first title that will premiere at the end of the month on TriArt’s VOD platform TriArt.se and Telia’s video boutique Telia.se is the Norwegian film All that Matters is Past (Oskuld) by Sara Johnsen. Other titles that will be launched on VOD every other Friday until November 2 include Christoffer Boe’s Sex, Drugs & Taxation, Arild Andresen’s The Orheim Company, Tobias Lindholm’s A Hijacking, Arild Østin Ommundsen’s It’s Only Make Believe, Michael Noer’s Northwest, Dag Johan Haugerud’s I Belong, Annette K. Olesen’s The Shooter and Erik Skjoldbjærg’s Pioneer. Each VOD release will benefit from a publicity campaign on printed and viral media and an advertising campaign.
TriArt’s Scandinavian online film season is the latest examples of innovative distribution initiatives taken by Swedish independent distributors, fuelled by Sweden’s ‘neutral windows’ Film Agreement. Mattias Nohrborg, TriArt Acquisition Manager says it is vital today for Swedish independent distributors to be able to experiment with new distribution models as the DVD market has collapsed and 80% of Swedish cinemas are in the hands of SF and Svenska Bio, leaving little on screen space for arthouse fare, especially in smaller Swedish towns.
More than 350 cherry picked arthouse films are already available on TriArt’s own digital platform, offering film news, reviews and interviews. The TriArt film catalogue is also carried by Telia’s online video shop, alongside brands such as SF, Nordisk Film or NonStop Entertainment, and in 2013, Telia Sweden’s TV customers made more than 2.8 million online film transactions, representing 7,500 film rentals a day.
TriArt is among a group of Nordic independent distributors that receive support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond as part of its ‘Nordic High Five’ Distribution scheme. Other distributors include Camera Film in Denmark, Arthaus in Norway and Greenlight Films in Iceland that recently launched its own VOD distribution initiative.