18TH SOFIA MEETINGS PRESENTS
COOPERATIVE, COLLABORATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY: VOD IN THE POST-COVID WORLD
In Partnership with EVROVOD
A talk with Agustina Lumi, EUROVOD - France (Tech PM), Sasa Stanisik, Cinesquare - North Macedonia (CEO) & Maxime Lacour, UniversCiné Belgium / Sooner (CEO), Stefan Schallert, Marketing Manager, Cinema Service Platform (Austria)
24.03 / 11:00 AM CET
EUROVOD is the only established association of European VoD platforms. Created in France in 2010, EUROVOD redefined in 2018 a new strategic approach and actions, animating a network of more than 300 companies since then, companies that contribute to the evolution of a knowledge economy and a cooperative management within the VoD sector. The association represents a range of European Video on Demand (VoD) platforms and stakeholders: national, international and global VoD services with a catalogue of 78% European works on average, but also technical providers as associate members.
The Covid Crisis forced the industry to work collectively to face up to the hard realities of shut-down production, closed cinemas and the fragility of independent film economics. The cautious optimism that we are bearing the end of the crisis is a useful time for reflection. It is increasingly clear that the last year highlighted and accelerated trends that were already in play but it demonstrated that these are much less divisive than might have been previously thought. The crisis showed an appetite for online, on-demand viewing but also a renewed desire for the cinema experience. The cooperation and collaboration of the crisis may hold the key to a future for European film and European cultural diversity. This session will explore how the value chain can build complementary services and activities and a collaborative approach to shared interests.
Agustina Lumi is a film and TV producer, trained in the field of Social Communications at UBA (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina). She developed her career in the main Argentine production companies and broadcasters working on factual content for TV and several feature documentaries which toured and were premiered in different festivals and markets around the world. She was part of INCAA (National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts) in Argentina for almost ten years. As head of their Exhibition Department - and with a strong role as Media Content Manager for CINE.AR TV / CINE.AR PLAY (VoD) and INCAA’s public cinemas - she deepened in the development of audience strategies, public policies and promotion to help grow communities interested in Argentine movies and content.
In addition to her audiovisual expertise, in 2009 she began teaching as a Professor for Social Communications in public high-schools and universities in Argentina, giving workshops on Journalism and Media Reading as well as Growing Audiences laboratories. She is currently based in Madrid representing Argentine production companies, she is Head of Content for the movie marketing company usheru and is part of the EUROVOD team as Project Manager for EUROVOD Pro, the Professional Platform which was launched in Beta version during 2020.
Sasa Stanisic is an independent producer, director and writer. He is the owner of Cutaway d.o.o.e.l. – a production company based in Skopje, engaged in distribution and production of films. With Cutaway he started cinesquare.net, biggest VoD platform in South Eastern Europe which is focused on European and Independent content which cover all countries from the region ( North Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Turkey, Cyprus). Sasha has participated in several seminars and workshops dedicated to new ways of production and distribution of content. He is the author of several short films and TV formats.
Maxime Lacour holds a degree in Business Management from Ichec Management School and in Filmmaking from the Institut des Arts de Diffusion in Belgium. He has been working in the film industry since 2002, notably in film production and later on in distribution. In 2009, he founded UniversCiné Belgium with a large network of producers and distributors that he gathered around the initiative. In 2016, he founded UniversCiné Luxembourg, which he developed with the Luxemburgish film industry. In 10 years, UniversCiné Belgium and Luxembourg has launched various BtoC and BtoB video on demand platforms and acts now as one of the key players of the video on demand field in the Benelux territories. In 2020, Maxime launched the VoD platform Sooner in Belgium and Luxembourg and he will launch Sooner in the Netherlands in the coming weeks. This new european VOD label exist now already in 6 countries including Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
In 2010, he took part, as a founding member, in the launch of EuroVoD, the European federation of video on demand platforms, for which he has been member of the board for 10 years.
Since 2016, he is also a board member of the European Children Film Association. Maxime has given lectures at the Université de Louvain-la-Neuve, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Université de Liège. He has also been part of various juries and has been invited to give conferences in numerous European festivals.
Stefan Schallert graduated in Media & Communication Science in Vienna in 2015 with a PH.M focusing on web 2.0 and journalism, since 2019 Stefan Schallert is responsible for Marketing and Operational Management at KINO VOD CLUB, the brand of Cinema Service Platform, an Austrian based company managing VoD platforms for cinema theaters.
SampoMedia, Founder
Michael Gubbins is an analyst, journalist and consultant, working in the international film, entertainment and media industries, with particular expertise in the changing on-demand digital economy. He has worked across the film and media value chain, and has created influential reports, workshops, labs and events for a wide variety of businesses and organisations in more than 30 countries. He is also a sought-after chair of conferences and a frequent keynote speaker. He was chair of the innovative film agency Ffilm Cymru Wales until his tenure ended in 2019. In more than 30 years in journalism, Gubbins edited Screen International and ScreenDaily, Music Week and business technology magazine Computing, as well as editing and writing for daily newspapers in the UK and Europe. Recent major projects included leading a project to build a creative cluster in the West Midlands region of the UK.