ABSTRACT
The National Film Board of Canada, an institution who pride themselves certainly as a hotbed of innovative auteur filmmaking, have taken tremendous initiative in their marriage of exciting new film ideas and how their audience experiences them. Festivals are absolutely unique opportunity to see films in their proper environment, which is up on a big screen with optimum visual and audio reproduction, with an audience. Films that might be considered conceptually avant-garde can remain fundamentally entertaining. With the development of the app, for which film submissions are solicited on a rolling basis, this even extends to possible monetization through a combination of ad revenue and direct purchase options, with 85%–15% revenue split offered in the filmmakers’ favor. The number of platforms available to independent filmmakers of any medium and genre is bigger than ever before and growing exponentially. The days of physical home media could draw to a close soon, with dwindling retail outlets in keeping with consumer demand.
