A global initiative by TIFF for establishing geoblocking in online festivals
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival has taken on a global initiative for the protection of films and festivals in the new digital times, starting a plea for using geoblocking technology in online film festivals. The plea has already been signed by 18 big film festivals from all over the world.
The outbreak of the coronavirus forced many festivals to move online. In the new situation that takes shape, following the rule of geoblocking is essential to the protection of the films, the filmmakers and the festivals.
It is important that festivals organizing digital screenings should limit them in 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, movie theaters, national streaming platforms and TV channels.
In this new environment, we call for concerted action between the festivals and the industry players.
In the meantime, and in order not to further weaken the audiovisual sector, we undertake to:
- Geo-block for the audience the online diffusion of national and international premieres
- Loosen, as much as possible, our rules on international premieres for films that have been recently premiered online.
The plea is signed by the following festivals:
Amiens International Film festival
Cinemania Film Festival
Film Fest Gent
Fipadoc International Documentary Festival
Gijon IFF
International Film Festival Mannheim Heidelberg
Istanbul Film Festival
Jerusalem Film Festival
Luxembourg City Film Festival
New Horizons IFF
Noordelijk Film Festival
Sarajevo Film Festival
Seville European Film Festival
Stockholm Int Film Festival
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
Thessaloniki Film Festival
Torino Film Festival
Trieste Film Festival
We call more festivals to sign the text, in order to secure the future of films, to support the filmmakers and to ensure the sustainability of the film industry.
Find the plea and more information here:
