FilmDoo explained

FilmDoo
Type:streaming video / educational technology
Author:Weerada Sucharitkul (Founder)
Current Status:Active

FilmDoo.com is a UK-based video-on-demand (VOD) platform that specialises in independent and world cinema.

Described by Guy Lodge of The Guardian as "one of the more discerning new streaming services on the block,"[1] the platform has received media attention for giving international releases to films that had previously received no home video distribution.

FilmDoo has partnered with online film festivals, including UniFrance's MyFrenchFilmFestival.com[2] and the ArteKino Festival,[3] and over 50 distributors, including Peccadillo Pictures, Film Movement and Third Window Films.[4] The platform has also compiled and distributed various short film compilations, including gay- and lesbian-themed compilations from the New Queer Visions festival strand.[5] [6]

FilmDoo has been elected secretary of EuroVoD, a network of European Video on Demand platforms specialising in art-house films and independent cinema.[7]

Representatives of FilmDoo have spoken and presented at events hosted by various festivals and organisations, including the 77th Venice International Film Festival,[8] 2018 Cannes Film Festival,[9] Berlin's European Film Market,[10] Trieste Film Festival,[11] Thessaoniki International Film Festival,[12] Odesa International Film Festival,[13] the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival[14] and European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs.[15]

In recent years, the company has seen an expansion into online education, launching two video-based learning platforms in 2021, named FilmDoo Academy and FilmDoo Language Learning.[16] Representatives of FilmDoo have since presented at edtech and education events organised by groups as the British Council in Indonesia[17] and the Language Flagship in the United States.[18]

History

The platform was officially launched at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. According to FilmDoo CEO and co-founder Weerada Sucharitkul, "The word 'Doo' in 'FilmDoo' means to watch or see in Thai, so FilmDoo means to watch a film in Thai."[19] Sucharitkul reports that the name was originally suggested by her mother and that it was chosen "because [they] wanted a non-English word to really reflect the international element of the business from the very beginning."

Later that same year, FilmDoo was selected as a finalist for the 2015 MassChallenge accelerator program.[20]

In July 2016, FilmDoo announced the launch of two new short film channels on new media network, Ownzones: FilmDoo Horror for international horror films; and FilmDoo Asian for Asian shorts, both of which are available internationally by subscription.[21]

In the summer of 2016, FilmDoo also launched a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs with the goal of raising £95,000. On 7 November 2016, the site reported to have raised "a total of approximately £235,000 (including investments off the platform)".[22]

In 2017, FilmDoo were accepted for the French Tech Ticket, a one-year program funded by the French government to support startup companies from around the world.[23]

That same year, FilmDoo received sponsorship from Creative Europe for a proposed "Multi-Language/Multi-Modal Automated Film Tagging Service."[24] On 19 February 2018, the platform named Fassoo was presented at the European Film Market by Patrick Ndjiki-Nya and William Page as part of the EFM Startups event.[25]

In 2018, FilmDoo were selected for the seventh edition of Concours d’Innovation Numérique, a French government grant scheme run by Bpifrance, in order to support the launch of their planned language learning platform, LanguageDoo.[26]

In the summer of that same year, FilmDoo launched a channel on Amazon in the United States,[27] where a selection of short films are available on a subscription basis.[28] At the same time, the FilmDoo Aggregate program was launched as means of distributing films to other third party platforms, including Amazon.

At the 2020 North Europe edition of the Fusion International Film Festival, FilmDoo announced the launch of FilmDoo Services, a platform that provides film distributors, brands, distributors and film commissions with services and consultation in the fields of distribution and marketing.[29] On October 28, 2020, FilmDoo CEO Weerada Sucharitkul received first prize in the UK & France round of She Loves Tech, the "world's largest startup pitch competition for women and technology."[30] In December of the same year, FilmDoo was one of thirty companies selected for Barclays' and Techstars' Female Founders First, a programme that provides "trailblazing, female-led technology companies with resources to grow, scale, and advance."[31]

In January 2021, supported by a grant from the MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe, FilmDoo launched FilmDoo Academy, an online learning platform that allowed users to create video-based quizzes using videos from YouTube and Vimeo.[32] This was later followed by the launch of an additional platform, FilmDoo Language Learning, which allowed users pull from FilmDoo's own film catalogue to create online, video-based language lessons. In May, 2021, FilmDoo Academy was selected as one of the "Elite 200" education technology startups selected to compete in the GSV Cup pitch competition, held at the ASU+GSV Summit between August 9 and August 11.[33] [34] That same year, FilmDoo was selected for the Belgium-based Start it @KBC accelerator program, along with the 500 Startups Global Launch Singapore accelerator program, both of which supported the company's expansion into online learning and edtech.[35] [36]

From March to July, 2021, FilmDoo partnered with the Media & Learning Association in Belgium to conduct a pilot study on the former's edtech tool and platform.[37]  The study was moderated by Julia Schieber from the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg and funded by the Creative Europe MEDIA sub-programme.

In 2021, FilmDoo also launched a pilot of their online learning services with UK banks NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland, where FilmDoo's video-based learning tools were used to support corporate diversity and inclusion training.[38]

In the media

In May 2015, FilmDoo's acquisition of two new Indonesian titles and their new deal with distribution company Trinity were covered by Variety, with Asia Bureau Chief Patrick Frater writing that, with these new developments, "FilmDoo has bolstered its Asian credentials".[39]

Similarly, in April 2016, FilmDoo received coverage from IndieWire for giving international releases to more than twenty "Vintage South African films" from distributors Retro Afrika Bioscope.[40] In June that same year, Screen Daily published an article on the release of fourteen Southeast Asian films on FilmDoo.[41]

FilmDoo's 2016 crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs received attention from several media outlets, including Screen Daily,[42] Crowdfund Insider[43] and VODzilla.[44]

The company's acceptance into the French Tech Ticket programme was covered by French publication Les Échos.[45]

On May 27, 2020, FilmDoo CEO Weerada Sucharitkul featured as a guest speaker on Fast Forward, a webcast run by consultancy The Catalysts.[46]

On September 8, 2021, Sucharitkul featured as a guest on Money FM 89.3 show The Breakfast Huddle, where she discussed the company's expansion into online, video-based learning.[47] That same year, Sucharitkul was selected for VOD Professional's list of 50 VOD Professionals 2021, a list of "the most influential people working in the UK’s OTT industry over the past 12 months."[48]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Suite Française; Clouds of Sils Maria; While We're Young; A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night; Conspirators of Pleasure – review. Lodge. Guy. 26 July 2015. The Guardian. 0261-3077. 1 September 2016.
  2. News: 2018-02-19. Award winners and record-breaking figures for the 8th MyFrenchFilmFestival!. en-US. MyFrenchFilmFestival. 2020-06-05.
  3. News: ARTEKINO FESTIVAL COMPETITION IN PARTNERSHIP WITH FILMDOO: WIN AN ONLINE PASS TO AN EXCITING RANGE OF NEW EUROPEAN CINEMA. 2017-12-01. FilmDoo. 2018-06-28. en-US.
  4. Web site: WHO WE WORK WITH FilmDoo. FilmDoo. en. 2018-06-28.
  5. Web site: New Queer Visions: Men from the Boys. FilmDoo. en. 2018-06-28.
  6. Web site: New Queer Visions: Lust in Translation. FilmDoo. en. 2018-06-28.
  7. Web site: EUROVOD - Network of European Independent VoD Platforms. EUROVOD - Network of European Independent VoD Platforms. en. 2018-07-02.
  8. Web site: Abbatescianni . Davide . 5 September 2020 . The future of European VoD discussed at Venice Production Bridge . 10 May 2022 . Cineuropa.
  9. News: MEDIA events at the 71st Cannes Film Festival. Digital Single Market. 2018-07-02. en.
  10. Web site: Mapping the Way: EFM STARTUPS Build Industry Solutions . 10 May 2022 . European Film Market.
  11. News: Programme 2018. When East Meets West. 2018-07-02. en-US.
  12. News: Newsletter October 2017. Thessaloniki Film Festival. 2018-07-02. en-gb.
  13. Web site: EN NEW SPEAKERS AT DIGITAL MEDIA DAY 07 2016 News. oiff.com.ua. en. 2018-07-02.
  14. Web site: REDISTRIBUTE:ECONOMY . 10 May 2022 . CPH:DOX Documentary Film Festival.
  15. Web site: TIES THAT BIND 2018 — EAVE. eave.org. en. 2018-07-02.
  16. Web site: 11 April 2022 . FILMDOO'S EXPANSION INTO FILM- & VIDEO-BASED LEARNING: THE JOURNEY SO FAR . 27 April 2022 . FilmDoo.
  17. Web site: 28 September 2021 . UK-INDONESIA: ENGLISH PARTNERSHIPS SERIES . 10 May 2022 . British Council.
  18. Web site: SUBMITTING A PILOT PLAN . 10 May 2022 . The Language Flagship.
  19. Web site: GET TO KNOW THE FILMDOO TEAM: FILMDOO CO-FOUNDER – WEERADA SUCHARITKUL. 14 September 2016. FilmDoo. 18 September 2016.
  20. Web site: 20 May 2015. MassChallenge Reveals 2015's Most Promising Startups. 5 June 2020. MassChallenge.
  21. Web site: FILMDOO AND OWNZONES BRING ASIAN AND HORROR SHORTS TO AN INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE. 14 July 2016. FilmDoo. 18 September 2016.
  22. News: FILMDOO WRAPS UP CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN WITH MORE THAN 230K IN INVESTMENTS. 2016-11-07. FilmDoo. 2018-06-28. en-US.
  23. News: 2018-02-16. "We would love to be able to stay on in France and to grow our team here." A year in France by FilmDoo. en-US. Paris&Co. 2020-06-05.
  24. Web site: Multi-Language / Multi-Modal Automated Film Tagging Service Creative Europe Desk UK. www.creativeeuropeuk.eu. en. 2018-07-02.
  25. Web site: EFM Startups. www.efm-berlinale.de. en. 2018-07-02.
  26. Web site: Dossier de presse - Lauréats CIN 7. fr. 2018-06-25.
  27. Web site: "We would love to be able to stay on in France and to grow our team here." A year in France by FilmDoo. 2018-02-16. incubateurs.parisandco.com. fr-FR. 2018-06-14.
  28. Web site: Amazon.com: Prime Video. www.amazon.com. 2018-06-14.
  29. Web site: 2020-02-19. FilmFocus ISSUE 05. 2020-06-08. Issuu. en.
  30. Web site: 24 November 2020 . She Loves Tech 2020 - UK & France . 9 May 2022 . YouTube.
  31. Web site: December 17, 2020 . Female Founders First . May 9, 2022 . Rise.
  32. Web site: 10 February 2022 . FilmDoo: From international film streaming service to interactive language learning platform . 27 April 2022.
  33. Web site: The Elite 200 . 9 May 2022 . ASU+GSV Summit.
  34. Web site: Sucharitkul . Weerada . 21 May 2021 . FilmDoo Selected for GSV Cup Elite 200; Will Compete for $1M in Prizes in World's Largest EdTech Pitch Competition . 9 May 2022 . LinkedIn.
  35. Web site: 9 February 2022 . FilmDoo reveals the educational power of film. . 27 April 2022 . YouTube.
  36. Web site: August 17, 2021 . 5 Questions with Weerada Sucharitkul, FilmDoo . May 9, 2022 . Tech Collective.
  37. Web site: Sucharitkul . Weerada . 13 October 2021 . MLA study on FilmDoo's Edtech Platform reveals potential for improving motivation . 10 May 2022 . Media & Learning.
  38. Web site: Sucharitkul . Weerada . 21 September 2021 . How FilmDoo pivoted to online learning by leveraging the power of films and video in the pandemic . 27 April 2022.
  39. Web site: Cannes: FilmDoo Polishes Asian Credentials With Acquisitions, Catalog Addition. Frater. Patrick. 19 May 2015. Variety. 18 September 2016.
  40. Web site: 1 April 2016 . Vintage South African Films to Be Released Internationally via FilmDoo Streaming Platform . 27 February 2022 . Shadow and Act.
  41. Web site: FilmDoo launches platform for Southeast Asian cinema. Screen Daily. 18 September 2016.
  42. Web site: Indie VOD service FilmDoo launches crowdfunding campaign. Screen Daily. 18 September 2016.
  43. Web site: Video-On-Demand Platform FilmDoo Seeks Nearly £100,000 on Seedrs For App Launch & Business Development. 1 September 2016. Crowdfund Insider. 18 September 2016.
  44. Web site: FilmDoo launches crowdfunding campaign to drive international expansion VODzilla.co. VODzilla. 18 September 2016.
  45. Web site: Le programme French Tech Ticket, étendu à 70 start-up étrangères - Les Echos. business.lesechos.fr. fr. 2018-06-28.
  46. Web site: Cultural Exchange and the Power of Film with Weerada Sucharitkul. 2020-06-08. THE CATALYSTS. en-US.
  47. Web site: 8 September 2021 . Mind Your Business: How FilmDoo is using world cinema to power a language and culture edtech . 27 April 2022.
  48. Web site: 10 June 2021 . 50 VOD Professionals 2021 . 3 May 2022 . VOD Professional.