Ann Arbor ,New York, and Paris—Mar 9, 2017
Eclair and Art House Convergence Announce Strategic Partnership for Specialty Film & Event Cinema Distribution
Eclair, Ymagis Group’s content services business
unit, today announced a strategic alliance with the
Art House Convergence (AHC), USA’s premier non-profit association in support of
independent film exhibition and distribution. This new alliance was sealed
during AHC’s 10th Anniversary Conference held just prior to the 2017
Sundance Film Festival.
As part of the
alliance, Eclair's CineConductor for DCP Management & Delivery via
Broadband Network becomes AHC’s preferred “next generation” broadband digital
cinema services provider in the US. Launched at the AHC’s 2015 event,
CineConductor rapidly expanded to well over one hundred sites, many of which
are ongoing AHC participants. Over half of the more than one hundred plus cinema
venues and two thirds of the rights holders attending the 2017 AHC have already
been CineConductor users. Cinema venues new to the service that attended both
2016 and 2017 AHC events are also entitled to receive additional benefits with
CineConductor.
Terms of
the partnership include Eclair’s ongoing financial support for the AHC’s
Scholarship Fund, which subsidizes selected cinemas to enable them to attend
the annual conference held in Midway, Utah the week leading up to the Sundance
Film Festival. The Art House Convergence annual conference is presented in
participation with the Sundance Institute Art House Project, a joint program in
support of the indie film exhibition and distribution community.
“Our purpose, from the very beginning of the Art House
Convergence, is to support ‘community-based, mission-driven’ cinemas,” explains
Russ Collins, founder of Art House Convergence. “The process requires not only
creative programming and marketing efforts but ongoing dialog between Art House
exhibitors and distributors, as well as re-visiting the business models we all
work under. Sustainability and increased diversity, on the screen and in the
audiences, are critical to our ongoing growth. When an effective new service,
such as CineConductor, comes onto the market and is quickly adopted by our
constituents - including my own Michigan Theater, in Ann Arbor - it is meaningful.
With our new alliance Eclair has stepped up to support us, both via the
Scholarship Program, and in cost effectively and conveniently sending DCPs to
participating theaters.”
For Barry Rebo, Managing Director of Eclair USA, “Ymagis
Group’s founder and CEO Jean Mizrahi and I in fact launched our US-based
company back at the 2015 AHC conference. Since then we have been extremely
pleased with the uptake of CineConductor by the specialty film community as
practiced by the active AHC participants. It’s indeed an honor to be able to
expand our support of their extremely worthwhile efforts via both our
Scholarship Fund initiative as well as applying Eclair’s commercial resources
in service to our mutual goals.”
CineConductor,
Eclair’s innovative and highly regarded DCP Management & Delivery via
Broadband platform, offers “DCPs without hard drives” to over one hundred
Specialty Film & Event Cinema exhibitors in service to over three dozen
prestigious rights holders based in the States and overseas. The AHC/Eclair USA
program is now available to interested and qualified venues. The agreement has
an initial term of two years, subject to renewals as agreed to by both parties.
In addition to the strategic alliance with the AHC, Eclair also announced a
complimentary program with the Film Festival Alliance, which holds its own conference
in association, and simultaneously, with the larger Art House Convergence
gathering.
About
The Art House Convergence
The Art House
Convergence began in 2005 as the Sundance Institute Art House Project,
celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Sundance Institute by honoring a small
group of leading U.S. Art House theatres. This grew into the independently run
Art House Convergence, which in 2008 presented its first annual conference, an
industry educational program designed to empower and inform independent cinemas
nationwide. The growth of the Art House Convergence and its development of
research, surveys and year round communication among art house theaters affirm
that the organization has evolved into a leading national resource for the
support of independent film and the promotion of film culture in local
communities. The upcoming annual conference will be January 15 – 18, 2018 in
Midway, Utah. For more information, please visit arthouseconvergence.org.
About
Eclair - YMAGIS GROUP
Eclair is the Ymagis Group’s business unit
dedicated to content services. Founded in 1907 in the early days of cinema,
Eclair is a historic, innovative and respected company in the motion picture
and television industries. The Ymagis Group is a leader in advanced digital
technology services for the cinema industry. Through CinemaNext and Eclair, the
Group provides innovative solutions to movie exhibitors, distributors (feature
films & event cinema), producers, right-holders, cinema/TV advertising
networks, rights holders, broadcasters, VOD/S-VOD platform operators and video
publishers. Founded in 2007, Ymagis Group is headquartered in Paris and has
offices in 23 countries with nearly 800 employees. Our
