Newly Launched Streaming Platform FILMPIXS Boasts an Array of Short Films and Documentaries From Tentpole Film Festivals4 min read
Reading Time: 3 minutesHF Productions, the company behind a series of independent film festivals, presents FILMPIXS, a new streaming platform that officially launched on February 17.
FILMPIXS offers a wide variety of titles with extensive previous experience in international festivals, thus betting on auteur cinema as well as on impressive content that encourages viewers to see, feel and think. The platform will be available worldwide and users will be able to access the content through monthly or annual subscriptions.
FILMPIXS will also host film festivals, as the global pandemic continues to threaten face-to-face events in 2021. FILMPIXS will debut its first virtual event in March with the Dublin Independent Film Festival (a festival organized by HF Productions).
FILMPIXS will be available through its own website, www.filmpixs.com, as well as through the FILMPIXS app, available on iOS, Android, and other formats. The fixed price of the monthly subscription will be S$8, that of the annual subscription will be S$66.50. There is also a seven day free trial period.
The programming available on the platform is made up of content selected exhaustively by the FILMPIXS team. These are films with a prior history at major film festivals such as Cannes, Toronto, Berlinale, Venice and Sundance, as well as award-winning works at international short film festivals. Through the work of the platform’s programmers, HF Productions and the collaboration with different film festivals and distribution companies, as well as global NGOs and the United Nations, FILMPIXS will highlight social-themed works (shorts and documentaries) that will reach a wide audience.
The platform debuted adding more than 100 films to its catalogue on February 17. New titles from SXSW, Tribeca, Rotterdam or Sundance, among others, will be added every week. With few exceptions, all FILMPIXS programming will be available worldwide.
Some of the top 100 titles to be added on opening day include the Czech animated short and Oscar® nominee DCERA (DAUGHTER) by Daria Kascheeva, about a young woman trying to salvage her relationship with her hospitalized father; the long documentary nominated for the 2020 Goya Awards EL ESCRITOR DE UN PAÍS SIN LIBRERÍAS (THE WRITER FROM A COUNTRY WITHOUT BOOKSTORES) by Marc Serena, which portrays the writer from Equatorial Guinea Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel who goes on a hunger strike to protest against the dictatorship of Teodoro Obiang; and FIGURANT directed by Jan Vejnar, about a man (Denis Lavant) who thinks himself forced to do military service and who ends up questioning his community and surroundings. This film was part of the Official Selection of SXSW in 2020.
Others that will be published on the day of the official launch are the short film and winner of the 2019 Singapore International Film Festival’s (SGIFF) Best Southeast Asian Film I’M NOT YOUR F***ING STEREOTYPE by Hesome Chemamah, which portrays about the identity crisis and discrimination experienced by a Muslim girl in Thailand; and Tomek Popakul’s Polish animated short, ACID RAIN, which premiered at Sundance in 2019 that follows a young fugitive’s journey toward self-discovery.
Henrik Friis and Benn Wiebe (HF Productions) are the creators of FILMPIXS. Friis and Wiebe have established a global network of film festivals, focusing on the educational value of film and supporting primarily independent filmmakers and short-form film.
Friis (CEO of HF Productions and FILMPIXS), is part of the jury of the United Nations In Action Film Festival in New York, has been a TEDx speaker and is the director of the Arctic Film Festival, Oslo Film Festival and Santorini Film Festival, among others. In 2020 he assisted in the production /fundraising of the SXSW award-winning documentary BEAUTIFUL SOMETHING LEFT BEHIND and was co-executive producer of the documentary WOMEN OF THE GULAG which was shortlisted for an Academy Award at the 91st Academy Awards.
Wiebe (Executive Producer of HF Productions and FILMPIXS), works as a professional specialized in film consultancy, in addition to being an advisor on the Global Social Impact (London). Benn was co-executive producer of the Oscar shortlist WOMEN OF THE GULAG and the consultant for
BEAUTIFUL SOMETHING LEFT BEHIND. Wiebe handles partnerships and sponsorships including the United Nations Action Film Festival and the agreement with Sony Pictures for the Picture This Festival for the Planet. Wiebe also serves on the boards of the Global Environment Media, Climate
Crisis Hub, SIE Society, and Yea! Impact.
Friis and Wiebe confess that “having worked with film festivals and partners in more than 20 countries to date, the mission of HF Productions has always been the same: to support filmmakers and contribute to the dissemination of their works. FILMPIXS is the continuation of this idea: we want to provide a platform for short films in particular, which are so often homeless after completing their film festival circuit. FILMPIXS’s main objective is to prolong this “life after festivals” for these true gems. In addition, we are aware of the current situation and therefore it is very important for us that our catalogue reaches a much wider global audience, within their own homes.”
