FilmDoo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
Type of site | streaming video / educational technology |
|---|---|
| Created by | Weerada Sucharitkul (Founder) |
| URL | www |
| Current status | Active |
FilmDoo.com is a UK-based video-on-demand (VOD) platform that specialises in independent and world cinema.
Described by Guy Lodge of The Guardian as "one of the more discerning new streaming services on the block,"[1] the platform has received media attention for giving international releases to films that had previously received no home video distribution.[2][3]
FilmDoo has partnered with online film festivals, including UniFrance's MyFrenchFilmFestival.com[4] and the ArteKino Festival,[5] and over 50 distributors, including Peccadillo Pictures, Film Movement and Third Window Films.[6] The platform has also compiled and distributed various short film compilations, including gay- and lesbian-themed compilations from the New Queer Visions festival strand.[7][8]
FilmDoo has been elected secretary of EuroVoD, a network of European Video on Demand platforms specialising in art-house films and independent cinema.[9]
Representatives of FilmDoo have spoken and presented at events hosted by various festivals and organisations, including the 77th Venice International Film Festival,[10] 2018 Cannes Film Festival,[11] Berlin's European Film Market,[12] Trieste Film Festival,[13] Thessaoniki International Film Festival,[14] Odesa International Film Festival,[15] the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival[16] and European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs.[17]
In recent years, the company has seen an expansion into online education, launching two video-based learning platforms in 2021, named FilmDoo Academy and FilmDoo Language Learning.[18] Representatives of FilmDoo have since presented at edtech and education events organised by groups as the British Council in Indonesia[19] and the Language Flagship in the United States.[20]
The platform was officially launched at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.[21] According to FilmDoo CEO and co-founder Weerada Sucharitkul, "The word 'Doo' in 'FilmDoo' means to watch or see in Thai, so FilmDoo means to watch a film in Thai."[22] Sucharitkul reports that the name was originally suggested by her mother and that it was chosen "because [they] wanted a non-English word to really reflect the international element of the business from the very beginning."[22]
Later that same year, FilmDoo was selected as a finalist for the 2015 MassChallenge accelerator program.[23]
In July 2016, FilmDoo announced the launch of two new short film channels on new media network, Ownzones: FilmDoo Horror for international horror films; and FilmDoo Asian for Asian shorts, both of which are available internationally by subscription.[24]
In the summer of 2016, FilmDoo also launched a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs with the goal of raising £95,000.[25] On 7 November 2016, the site reported to have raised "a total of approximately £235,000 (including investments off the platform)".[26]
In 2017, FilmDoo were accepted for the French Tech Ticket, a one-year program funded by the French government to support startup companies from around the world.[27]
That same year, FilmDoo received sponsorship from Creative Europe for a proposed "Multi-Language/Multi-Modal Automated Film Tagging Service."[28] On 19 February 2018, the platform named Fassoo was presented at the European Film Market by Patrick Ndjiki-Nya and William Page as part of the EFM Startups event.[29]
In 2018, FilmDoo were selected for the seventh edition of Concours d’Innovation Numérique, a French government grant scheme run by Bpifrance, in order to support the launch of their planned language learning platform, LanguageDoo.[30]
In the summer of that same year, FilmDoo launched a channel on Amazon in the United States,[31] where a selection of short films are available on a subscription basis.[32] At the same time, the FilmDoo Aggregate program was launched as means of distributing films to other third party platforms, including Amazon.[31]
At the 2020 North Europe edition of the Fusion International Film Festival, FilmDoo announced the launch of FilmDoo Services, a platform that provides film distributors, brands, distributors and film commissions with services and consultation in the fields of distribution and marketing.[33] On October 28, 2020, FilmDoo CEO Weerada Sucharitkul received first prize in the UK & France round of She Loves Tech, the "world's largest startup pitch competition for women and technology."[34] In December of the same year, FilmDoo was one of thirty companies selected for Barclays' and Techstars' Female Founders First, a programme that provides "trailblazing, female-led technology companies with resources to grow, scale, and advance."[35]
In January 2021, supported by a grant from the MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe, FilmDoo launched FilmDoo Academy, an online learning platform that allowed users to create video-based quizzes using videos from YouTube and Vimeo.[36][18] This was later followed by the launch of an additional platform, FilmDoo Language Learning, which allowed users pull from FilmDoo's own film catalogue to create online, video-based language lessons.[18] In May, 2021, FilmDoo Academy was selected as one of the "Elite 200" education technology startups selected to compete in the GSV Cup pitch competition, held at the ASU+GSV Summit between August 9 and August 11.[37][38] That same year, FilmDoo was selected for the Belgium-based Start it @KBC accelerator program, along with the 500 Startups Global Launch Singapore accelerator program, both of which supported the company's expansion into online learning and edtech.[39][40]
From March to July, 2021, FilmDoo partnered with the Media & Learning Association in Belgium to conduct a pilot study on the former's edtech tool and platform.[41] The study was moderated by Julia Schieber from the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg and funded by the Creative Europe MEDIA sub-programme.[41]
In 2021, FilmDoo also launched a pilot of their online learning services with UK banks NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland, where FilmDoo's video-based learning tools were used to support corporate diversity and inclusion training.[42]