Sydney Levine

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) finishes the first phase of its Cinema Reloaded program with the launch of its first two crowd-funded short films. These films by Ho Yuhang and Alexis Dos Santos are supported by hundreds of individual donations from Cinema Reloaded co-producers. For them, the premiere on Sunday January 30 is a chance to see the work they have backed reach the big screen. It is also a celebration of the active commitment of the IFFR to support digital innovation.

Binger Filmlab is an Amsterdam based international feature film and documentary development center where talented writers, directors, producers and script editors from around the world can place both their projects and their usual working practices within an inspiring environment of fellow filmmakers, to be coached and supported by internationally acclaimed mentors and advisors. When it began in 1996, my partner, Peter Belsito and I would coach there, especially concentrating on the art of the pitch. While it has been many years since we've attended, it always retains a special place in our "cosmos" and we are happy to see how far it has progressed in its 14 years of existence.Binger opened its doors in 1996 as a post academic training facility for film professionals and now has matured into a challenging and unique film lab with intensive five-month programs that focus on the development of projects and the individual talents that create them. The world film community discovered this rich resource and they have welcomed to their global crossroads, filmmakers from Western, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, The Middle East, Asia, Latin and North America, and the Australia/ Pacific region.Binger has also discovered its other natural allies in this work of supporting the brightest emerging talents; the Sundance Institute and its Labs in the US, The Nipkow programme residencies in Berlin, and Paris' Cinéfondation (Cannes Film Festival) residence.In September of this year Thomas Mai spoke on the current hot topic, the crisis in distribution. Below is Binger reporter Matthew Curlewis's account.Watch here for YouTube video summation of the Social Media Revolution.

We have all have gone to discussions on distribution where the distributors despair in the face of high costs to advertise, difficulty in getting theatrical releases, no returns on social networking and other new internet initiatives. After attending one in San Sebastian hosted by European Film Promotion, we were notified that one of the supporters, Europa Distribution, might want to tell more people in the business about its mission. My discussion with the founder Adeline Monzier opens up possibilities for U.S. distributors even though they do not receive any government financial aid. Europa Distribution is the voice of independent distributors. Europa Distribution began in 2006 when Adeline left DIRE, the French Association of Independent Distributors which is a lobby and syndicate. ED is a lobby and also a network to introduce distributors to one another and also organize workshops. She is residing for the moment in New York where her husband is at Columbia doing research in physics.