The Mexican Film Institute, or Imcine, plans to use Filmin Latino, a subscription video service that is going online next month, to distribute movies, the institute’s director, Jorge Sanchez, told Efe.
A catalog of 600 films from Mexico and other Ibero-American countries will be available during the first few months that the service operates, with the number of titles rising to 800 by the end of 2015, thanks to a partnership with Filmin’s digital platform in Spain, Sanchez said.
Filmin Latino will provide high-quality and independent films with limited distribution options, expanding movie offerings on the Internet, Sanchez told Efe during the Guadalajara Film Festival, which runs until March 15.
“Despite the large volume of information and access to content that we have, we have to deal with a tremendous uniformity of offerings, and we have to break this barrier in some way and take advantage of new technologies,” Sanchez said.
Few Mexican films, according to Imcine figures, are in the catalogs of the eight streaming services available in Mexico, and the majority of the titles are recent.
Of the 2,415 films available on Netflix, 130 are Mexican; while just 352 of the 2,949 movies offered by Clarovideo were made in this country.
Part of the catalog of Mexican and foreign films will be available via monthly subscriptions or on demand, Sanchez said.
About 100 films from the 1970s and 1980s will be available free on Filmin Latino, with some pictures directed by Mexico’s Arturo Ripstein, Jorge Fons and Felipe Cazals.
Recent documentaries produced by Imcine and short films whose rights are owned by the institute will also be available for viewing.
Filmin Latino “will be like Netflix in terms of its design,” but its offerings will be managed by a team of curators in Mexico and Spain “to ensure the quality of the films,” Sanchez said.
