Online Film Festival - mission possible!

How did the CineLibri film festival debut online during a pandemic with the help of Neterra.TV +?

CineLibri is the only film and literature festival of its kind hosted in Bulgaria every year. On Neterra.TV+ you can watch the online edition of CineLibri. In 2020, CineLibri celebrated its sixth edition under the motto "Education of feelings". This year also marked the first time it was available online from all over the country.

 

"Despite the complex situation in cinema worldwide, this year almost all genres in cinema and literature were presented in the program of CineLibri, and every film and each screened book found its fans! We celebrated significant anniversaries, we welcomed famous artists - albeit remotely, we immersed ourselves in the art of different cultures," commented the organizer of the festival, Jacqueline Wagenstein.

The Client

The audience of the CineLibri festival is made up of fans of both the cinematic experience in cinemas and literary works. 

CineLibri is the only film and literature festival of its kind hosted in Bulgaria every year. In 2020, CineLibri celebrated its sixth edition under the motto "Education of feelings". The organizer of the event is Jacqueline Wagenstein. The festival aims to present new adaptations of literary works created in different eras and in different parts of the world. In addition to the new titles, the main part of the program includes a parallel one, which contains film classics, contemporary European feature films, as well as documentaries and short films.

The honorary award - the sculpture CineLibri - is given to a director who has masterfully screened a literary work.

CineLibri was first launched in 2015, and took place in Sofia, Varna, and Plovdiv. In 2016, five more cities were added to the tour, and the honorary statuette was awarded to Frédéric Beigbeder, who was also a special guest at the festival. In 2017, the festival was once again held in Sofia, but also in ten other Bulgarian cities.

In 2020, CineLibri was screened in cinemas across several Bulgarian cities, but this year also marked the first time it was available online from all over the country. The award went to director Burhan Qurbani for the film " Berlin Alexanderplatz " and legendary director, Jean-Jacques Annaud, joined as an honorary member of the jury this year. Other highlights of the program in 2020 were the titles "The Father" with Anthony Hopkins, "Minamata" with Johnny Depp, as well as the film "Mama Weed / La Daronne" with the magnificent Isabelle Huppert. The online edition focuses on "Summer of 85", "Mama Weed / La Daronne" "The Exception / Undtagelsen", "Pilate" and "The Ties / Lacci".

The Challenges

The Challenges

  • Under the conditions of a pandemic and the limited visits to the cinemas, the organizers of CineLibri needed a hybrid solution which would include combined cinema screenings and a platform in which the festival would be available online in order to increase revenue.

  • The organizers faced difficulties in negotiating the rights to broadcast movie titles online in order to meet the demands of their audience in the digital environment. CineLibri has chosen the package principle for selling online tickets so that consumers can take advantage of a discount when purchasing three or more titles in the online selection.

THE SOLUTION: CineLibri chose Neterra.TV +.

The team of Neterra.TV + managed to realize the film festival online, offering space on the platform, where the advertising banners of the main sponsors of CineLibri will be placed.

Online CineLibri 2020 was available through a separate link on the site Neterra.TV, in the section for paid movie content - Neterra.TV +.

Twenty-five titles were selected for the online festival - both hits from the main program and classics from Bulgarian cinema in the last ten years.

A special carousel was created that allowed users to focus on certain titles. The Neterra.TV + platform has the functionality of genre filtering of the movie catalog to make it easier for users to search available titles.

Neterra.TV + used the TVOD business model (transactional video on demand) where multiple package options were available for buying tickets for 3, 5, 10 or all 25 movies with each package offering a corresponding discount on the unit price; each user could also purchase a separate ticket for a single title.

 

The platform provided an opportunity for pre-sale of tickets; users had access to information about each film - synopsis, cast, trailers and teasers to entice and attract viewings.

It was key that the festival sponsors were able to feature their branding during the online showings. A special feature was created by the technical team that’d allow sponsors to advertise before the start of each movie. A highly visible, separate space was created between the various genre filters on the site to give freedom and peace of mind to the organizers in the implementation of the online and offline edition of CineLibri 2020.

A further benefit to this Neterra TV+ and CineLibri partnership was the addition of a third partner; when users bought a full subscription to all 25 movies, they received a discount code for high-end wines!

THE RESULT: More than successful

THE RESULT: More than successful

Thanks to the effort of all the teams involved – the very first online edition of CineLibri was a huge success.

"Despite the complex situation in cinema worldwide, this year almost all genres in cinema and literature were presented in the program of CineLibri, and every film and each screened book found its fans! We celebrated significant anniversaries, we welcomed famous artists - albeit remotely, we immersed ourselves in the art of different cultures," commented the organizer of the festival, Jacqueline Wagenstein.

This partnership enabled movie fans to watch newly released feature films, short films, documentaries and more from the safety of home.

"Neterra makes an extremely pleasant exception, for which I have thanked them many times. I recommend them as a reliable and secure partner in your future contacts with them!”, said Vanya Terzieva, a fan of the seventh art.

 Neterra.TV + became a successful additional revenue channel for CineLibri, and the organizers managed to increase the visibility of the festival, as well as to keep their commitments to advertisers.

 If you want to take advantage of a partnership with Neterra.TV +, get in touch!

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Case Study: CineLibri

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