This year’s Cannes Film Festival saw the pre-launch of Sofy.tv, a dedicated viewing platform that promises to revolutionize the way we watch short films.
When is the official launch so that I can start watching all those great shorts, I hear you ask.
The great news is the official launch is today, Monday 28th of May 2018.
Why Do We Need Sofy.tv?
If you are a short film nut like me then you will have undoubtedly suffered years of frustration just trying to get hold of short films.
Before the widespread adoption of broadband internet, I remember literally having to beg video stores to order in the short films I wanted to see. These were not obscure titles by some unknown either. One of the collections I was after was by the maestro of surrealism himself, and one of the biggest names in Hollywood, director David Lynch.
Once the internet really took off and we all felt confident enough to trust using our credit cards online, the situation didn’t improve much either. While sites like Shortslikeithot.com and Amazon.com were a godsend at first, I found that in no time at all I had bought every interesting film from their collections.
Another frustration is cost. The David Lynch Short Films Collection I mentioned currently costs $14 on Amazon. If you take this sum and multiply it by every short film that you want to watch, the figure would be enormous!
Thank God for YouTube, right?
Video streaming sites like YouTube and Netflix have revolutionized the way we watch TV, movies and listen to music. Thanks to better and better data speeds on our cell phones, most of us are now able to live stream movies anywhere, anytime.
It is for this reason that more and more of us are turning away from TV to these sites. Netflix has been so successful that it has even turned to producing a lot of its own content. Its most famous TV shows are watched by millions. Netflix has even become a big player in the movie business.
This year, Netflix caused an uproar at Cannes after pulling its films from the festival.
The organizers insisted that Netflix had to release its films before they could enter the festival. Netflix refused and so withdrew its films.
Sadly, this meant that audiences didn’t get to see “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead,” “Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” Paul Greengrass’ “Norway, Jeremy Saulnier’s “Hold the Dark,” Orson Welles’ “The Other Side of the Wind.”
Despite becoming a major player in the global film industry, Netflix only has a rather modest collection of short films. Once again, any die-hard short film fan will find themselves frustrated in no time.
So is there a solution?
The Answer to All Our Prayers: Sofy.tv
Sofy.tv is the first SVOD platform that is entirely dedicated to short films.
The site was founded by a group of short filmmakers, scientists, and enthusiasts working at Largo Films. It aims to finally put an end to the years of frustration that we have all felt just trying to get to see short movies.
The site aims to become the Netflix of short films. Even though the site has just launched, it already has a catalog of more than 200 films. This catalog is growing by the day, adding at least 10 films per week, something which means that there will always be plenty of new films to watch.
Another really exciting thing about their catalog is that most of these films cannot be found anywhere else, despite the fact that many are award-winning shorts.
Thanks to Sofy.tv, we can, at last, all enjoy the shorts we love so much.
How Much Does It Cost?
A subscription to Sofy.tv costs just 5.99 per month. The site also offers a pay-per-view option for just 1.99 per film. This is fantastically cheap, especially when you compare it to the price of buying a single short film on DVD.
The first month is completely free for new members. If you have some friends who are also crazy about short films then once you are a member you can invite them to join too. This way they will get up to 3 free months as a trial, so the popcorn is on them.
Why Should I Use Sofy.tv?
There are lots of reasons why you should use Sofy.tv.
- As I have already said, the site has a fast-growing catalog of award-winning short films that cannot be found anywhere else.
- The site specifically caters to short films. Unlike YouTube and other more general-purpose streaming sites, everything about Sofy.tv is focused on short films. It has specially designed search tools that allow users to easily find the films they want (just try to do this on YouTube).
- A great user interface that helps users by giving them all the information/pictures that they need to make their choice. This fantastic user interface also makes the site really easy to use too.
- New innovative features being added all the time, Sofy.tv is built on years of development undertaken by EPFL, one of most prestigious universities in the world. Many of the AI technologies that have been developed by the university are being incorporated into Sofy.tv. These include a dynamic video filter, high-level film understanding, and film recipe among others. The startup earned the support of notable Swiss organizations like Venture Kick, Innovaud, Canton Vaud – Speco, La Forge, and FIT.
- Supports short films. Sofy.tv aims to create a short film revolution. Not only will this finally get shorts back into the mainstream, but will also massively benefit the filmmakers too.
Supporting Filmmakers Is Key to the Future of Short Films
This might sound like a very obvious point, perhaps because it is, but we need to support short filmmakers. For too long, audiences have just assumed that plenty of short films are getting made so the industry must be healthy.
As the short movie makers behind Sofy.tv will be happy to explain, getting funding for short films is often nothing less than a nightmare. This is because short films rely heavily on grants and donations by organizations who never expect to get their money back rather than profit making companies.
A huge part of the problem is the trouble films have getting distribution. Distribution allows filmmakers to monetize their films and therefore make a profit.
Once films are able to make money, investment will come pouring in. Look at how MTV created a massive short film music video industry that now attracts some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
Sofy.tv is the answer to this distribution problem. Not only does it help film lovers like you and me actually get to see these films but it also financially rewards filmmakers too.
Sofy.tv is the win-win solution we have all been waiting for. All the platform needs is our support and it will reward us by letting us easily access all those great shorts we have long wanted to see.
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