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Who would have told the founders of Filmin, the Spanish online cinema platform that resists against Goliats such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Movistar or Disney, that an unprecedented global health crisis like the current one would be a sweet moment. This is reflected in the number of viewings of movies and series, which has increased 50% since the mandatory confinement began. "We Spaniards watch more movies," explains Jaume Ripoll, co-founder and editorial director of Filmin: "specifically, we have gone from seeing about 10 a month to doubling that number. And if before, consumption was concentrated on the weekend, now It doesn't matter if it's Monday, Thursday or Sunday. " The number of subscribers has also increased but the platform does not make this data public.

Tastes have evolved as the days went by and the mood changed. Ripoll explains that at the beginning of the pandemic caused by Covid 19, "when the virus was a distant threat rather than a reality," the British miniseries Utopia , with its apocalyptic and conspiranoid overtones, experienced a critical moment. "Then we noticed how the viewer has grown tired and now opts more for escapism . We have also been surprised at how much The indiscreet window is being seen," he confesses. Alfred Hitchcock's classic about a journalist with a cast leg who must rest at home and escape boredom by spying on his neighbors in the opposite building with binoculars seems, in effect, an unbeatable consolation for confinement. Also, hanging out with James Stewart and Grace Kelly is always a good idea.

The damn virus has also caused some films that have seen their premiere canceled in theaters by the measures of the state of alarm decreed by the government have found a lifeguard in Filmin. This is the case of the last film by Xavier Dolan, Matthias & Maxime , which premiered at the end of March on the platform, or the upcoming Assembly, the first Spanish film that decides to move its theatrical release to Filmin (with Greta Fernández , directed by Àlex Montoya, will be available on April 17) and Pullman by Toni Bestard, which can be seen from next April 24. The D'A Festival of Cinema d'Autor in Barcelona has also decided to move to Filmin instead of canceling the edition that was scheduled for later this month.

Ripoll respects all the decisions that are being made, whether to wait for movie theaters to reopen for the first time or to skip the traditional box office and go online . "In any case, what we want is for us to be seen as an ally. We have always been very favorable to the idea of variable windows . There are films that have a four-month display window, in others it is that period is shorter In any case, when all this is over and the theaters reopen, it will be necessary to rethink what is best for each film. "

Last year was one of the best for this platform that was born in 2007 in the middle of the piracy era with the somewhat kamikaze idea of ​​distributing cinema on the internet legally. The times of Seriesyonkis were running and a year later, in 2008, the great economic crisis broke out, but its two founders, Juan Carlos Tous and Jaume Ripoll, never stopped believing in a project that is aimed especially at auteur cinema lovers. and to viewers who prefer the original subtitled version. Its catalog has some 15,000 titles and the majority is European cinema.

Filmin not only anticipated in Spain the habit of paying to watch movies and series online , something fully naturalized today. This Barcelona-based platform has also been the co-star of more than one hinge moment in the film industry, such as the overwhelming premiere, in July 2012, of Carmina o revienta , which Paco León premiered simultaneously in cinemas and the internet . Ripoll cites another case of successful coexistence between theaters and online : the multi-award-winning Parasites , released simultaneously in Spain last February in cinemas, DVDs and Filmin. " The film raised four million euros in theaters and showed that we are not competition , that movies can have an extraordinary life in theaters regardless of their career on the internet and that you have to learn to live together," he says. The truth is that confinement has accelerated a debate that had been in the air for years.

How do you see the future of cinema and exhibition platforms? "We have made so many mistakes when making predictions that I prefer not to venture. At a social and economic level, everything will depend on what is true in the more pessimistic forecasts that are being published these days," says Ripoll. In the case of Filmin, since it is a "relatively affordable" cultural content (the subscription costs less than eight euros a month, 7.99 euros), its users may be able to continue paying for it, he explains.

Cinema online streaming platforms have a cultural VAT of the highest, 21%, greater than that of cinema, which is 10%, but Ripoll believes that now is not the right time to claim a decline, but rather at the moment, the priority of the Ministry of Culture must be to protect the weakest links in the chain that have been hit hardest by the health crisis, such as halls and filming. "Cinema has above all the vocation to share common spaces and I have no doubt that this will last forever. The life of movie theaters is assured . "

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