19/03/2020 - The Draken Film platform is launching a selection of newly released films and will donate half of the revenues from new subscribers to independent Swedish arthouse cinemas

The Göteborg Film Festival has announced that its VoD platform, Draken Film, is launching a selection of newly released films in collaboration with leading Swedish distributors and is donating half of the revenues from new subscribers to independent Swedish arthouse cinemas.

The titles slated for release on Draken Film include Portrait of a Lady on Fire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Céline Sciamma
film profile] by Céline Sciamma, A White, White Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile] by Hlynur Pálmason, Give Me Liberty by Kirill Mikhanovsky, The Perfect Candidate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Haifaa al-Mansour
film profile] by Haifaa al-Mansour and A Brother's Love by Monia Chokri. The films will be released in collaboration with some of the leading Swedish distributors.

"The coronavirus is a tough blow to the film industry," says the festival's artistic director, Jonas Holmberg. "Cinemas being empty and even closing down will affect everyone working with quality films, and the consequences for the movie theatres are likely to be devastating. It is now that the cinemas need our and everyone's support!"

The audience will be able to watch arthouse films at home while also contributing to their local cinemas and helping them to remain in business; the initiative will also help to welcome them back once the crisis is over. Each subscriber decides for themselves which cinema they want to support. During the first six months, half of the revenues will go directly to that specific movie theatre. By using Draken Film, subscribers will be supporting the film distributors as well, which are also severely affected by the current situation.

Draken Film is run by the Göteborg Film Festival and is the leading VoD platform in Sweden for arthouse film. It was crowned Sweden’s best streaming service by tech magazine IDG in 2019.

The cinemas supported by Draken Film include Zita, Capitol Bio, Folkets Bio Jönköping and Biocafé Tellus in Stockholm; Roy, Capitol and Hagabion in Gothenburg; Folkets Bio in Växjö; Folkets Bio in Umeå; Tollereds biograf and Scala in Båstad; Panora in Malmö; Fyrisbiografen in Uppsala; Kino in Lund; Gylleboverket in Östra Vemmerlöv; Röda Kvar in Borås; and Bio 7:an in Gävle.