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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Ph.D. Thesis Project - The Distribution of Arthouse Films in a Constantly Changing Industry: The Era of New Digital Protocols, Virtual Reality and Other Video on Demand
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Projects & Abstracts
2020-10-01
2021-10-05
2020-10-01
2024-03-10
Cinéma & Cie
Katia Andrea Morales
2020/10/01
Université de Montréal
2036-461X
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Ph.D. Thesis Project - The Distribution of Arthouse Films in a Constantly Changing Industry: The Era of New Digital Protocols, Virtual Reality and Other Video on Demand
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/16550/20231
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The Distribution of Arthouse Films in a Constantly Changing
Industry: The Era of New Digital Protocols, Virtual Reality
and Other Video on Demand
Katia Andrea Morales Gaitán / Ph.D. Thesis Project1
Université de Montréal




   With the goal of reaching wider audiences, a new ‘media chronology’2 has
arisen: these days movie theaters are no longer the exclusive place to premiere
a feature film. In many cases the gap between the first public screening and the
film’s availability on online platforms can take less than 6 months, instead of 36
months as it happened in the past. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more and
more films were even released directly on online platforms. Given this changing
scenario and with the growth of other agents in the film distribution industry, the
central issue of this project is understanding the challenges and new practices for
the distribution of arthouse films.
   This doctoral research under the direction of André Gaudreault will examine
the innovations of the economic, political and creative aspects involved in the
distribution of this type of cinema. The study will focus on platforms based on
Blockchain (disintermediation and transparency) and Virtual Reality technologies,
as well other kinds of Video on Demand. Through an interdisciplinary approach,
this project will bring insights from Film Studies, Sociology of Art and Economics
of Creative Industries.
   Although the French theory of auteur cinema developed in the 1960s is a classic
reference, I consider practical to use the term cinéma d’art et essai (arthouse films),
a contemporary classification of the French-language film industry. This concept
corresponds notably to the films that have received public funding and are often
co-productions between several countries. In more radical cases, there are films
resulting from collective work — produced by cooperatives or small companies
— motivated only by artistic creation, without the interest in making profits.
Consequently, their aim is creative freedom, formal experimentation, questioning
the establishment,3 and emancipation from studios or any other intermediary.


1
  Ph.D. dissertation supervised by Professor André Gaudreault. For information: katia.andrea.
morales.gaitan@umontreal.ca
2
  This concept claims specially in France a juridical frame about the order and the time that a film
should take to transit between different media: from movie theaters to Blu-ray then to TV and
finally at online platforms.
3
  One of my favorite forerunners is Pasolini. About his narratives, Magny says the following:
‘Pasolini contests the dominant culture, but he tries to get from what he calls the culture before pre-

                                                            Cinéma & Cie, vol. XX, no. 35, Fall 2020
                                   Katia Andrea Morales Gaitán


   After 72 editions, in 2020 an institution such as the Cannes Film Festival
has begun to gradually move into the virtual world4 with the realization of
the first completely online Marché du Film.5 From the field of Film Festival
Studies, Narváez’s6 contribution reveals the characterization of Latin American
films included in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and its audiences, a
category for which Mexicans have received top awards and recognition.7 His
work highlights the fact that arthouse and commercial cinema do coexist within
this institution. If for some viewers arthouse cinema is synonymous with boring
films, for others it is an opportunity to enjoy a piece of art that puts the creative
production of a director or a collective on display. These audience members know
that they will find an original and personal story, without editorial guidelines or
prefabricated production codes.
   Gaudreault and Marion’s8 recent research on Netflix is a key piece
of scholarship for investigating the commercial policy of this platform.
According to the authors, Netflix’s strategies and operations are very similar
to those of drug traffickers. They claim that the Los Gatos, California-based
company not only acquired various films and series for its catalogue, but
also is buying off as many filmmakers as possible to produce their own
productions. Faced with this monopolistic trend, it is the aim of my research
to amplify the alternative sources in arthouse film for the French and Spanish
speaking market.
   I have provisionally selected two titles to serve as case studies for this thesis.
First, I am No Longer Here (Ya no estoy aquí, Fernando Farías de la Parra,
2019); second, La flor (2017), officially directed by Mariano Llinas, but created
collectively by the cooperative El Pampero Cine. La flor is a 14-hour film with a


capitalism or paleo-capitalism […] what is necessary to found a new civilization’ (my translation),
Joël Magny, ‘Pier Paolo Pasolini, « Et Dieu dans tout ça? »’, Cahiers du cinéma (special issue
Cinéma 68), 1998, 93.
4
  Etienne Sorin, ‘Thierry Frémaux: « On peut imaginer un label “Cannes2020” pour valoriser les
films »’, Le Figaro [online], 15 April 2020 <https://www.lefigaro.fr/cinema/thierry-fremaux-on-
peut-imaginer-un-label-cannes2020-pour-valoriser-les-films-20200415> [accessed 16 April 2020].
5
  ‘Day 4 here we go! You are now 10,000 registered industry professionals at the Marché du Film
Online, THANK YOU! We’re proud to experience this with all of you! Still 2 days to enjoy our
virtual market!’ #mdf20 #mdfonline #cannes2020 #filmmarket #filmindustry» (@mdf_cannes, 25
June 2020).
6
  Geovanny Narváez, ‘El cine latinoamericano contemporáneo y la estética de festival. El caso de
Cannes (2000–2015)’, Archivos de la Filmoteca, 77 (2019), 21–46.
7
  Carlos Reygadas, director of titles such as Luz silenciosa (2007), Post Tenebras Lux (2012), is
the one with the most work catalogued as ‘Festival Art Cinema’ that is to say, narratives that are
complex, difficult to interpret, and intended for intellectual audiences. On the other hand, the title
Biutiful (2012) by Gonzales Iñárritu falls into the category of ‘Medium Art Cinema’. The films by
Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón would be in the category of ‘Art Cinema and Commercial
film’, whose main audiences are those of an average culture.
8
  André Gaudreault and Philippe Marion, ‘Les intervalles sériels à l’aune des « séries culturelles »’,
forthcoming in the online journal Sens public (article derived from the opening lecture given at the
international conference Intervalles sériels: littérature, cinéma, télévision, médias held in Montréal
in April 2019).

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          The Distribution of Arthouse Films in a Constantly Changing Industry


non-linear structure, made over 10 years in complete freedom — without co-
productions, public funds, pitching, or bureaucracy. Eventually, I will include in
my thesis a film shot in Virtual Reality from Quebec.
   This project will encompass both qualitative and quantitative tools. First, I
plan to conduct interviews with directors, producers, distributors, exhibitors,
aggregators, and representatives of digital platforms that have a decisive role
in the distribution of this content. These semi-structured interviews will focus
on 1) distribution strategies, 2) promotion, 3) economic aspects, 4) audiences,
and 5) challenges of implementation. Secondly, I will conduct two focus groups
with experts — one with agents from the French-speaking world, the other
with representatives from Spanish language cinema. Finally, I will also gather
quantitative data from other sources such as Comscore, institutional reports
from the National Film Board of Canada, the Centre national du cinéma et de
l’image animée and the Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía.




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