A new online movie service specializing in independent and international films launches today.
For $10 a month, Fandor gives members unlimited access to movies they can stream at any time.
The company bills itself as a “curated” service that offers movies of artistic and historic merit.
According to Fandor, “the catalog consists of a mix of film festival favorites, award-winning documentaries and short films such as ‘Happy Together,’ ‘Old Joy,’ ‘Carcasses,’ ‘Funny Games,’ ‘Searchers 2.0,’ ‘Black Gold’ and ‘Cairo Station.’”
Jonathan Marlow, Fandor’s founder and VP content development and acquisitions, told TheWrap that the new service is not meant to replace services like Netflix. Rather it meant to supplement them. He explained that 80 percent of Fandor’s movies aren’t available on Netflix.
“So then the question becomes not, ‘Why would I use you versus Netflix?’ It is, ‘Would I use you in addition to Netflix?”
In addition to standard streaming, Fandor will operate an online movie channel.
“It’s a throwback to a different way of viewing,” Marlow said. “It becomes a really powerful discovery tool for our audience.”
He explained that Fandor will program the channel “to recreate the film festival experience.”
Movies shown on Fandor’s channel will have common threads that won’t be obvious on the surface.
“But you start to see connections that you wouldn’t necessarily have expected,” Marlow said, adding that people won’t have to wait for Fandor to play the movie. They can watch anything Fandor has, whenever they want.
Additionally, Fandor will categorize its movies in a wide and quirky array of genres.
“I’m adding new genres all the time as we add more and more titles,” Marlow said. Instead, for example, of having a “movies about families” category, Fandor will have a “dysfunctional family” category and a “anarchic comedy” category.
Facebook members will be able to access Fandor through their Facebook accounts, and can watch one movie at no cost. They also can post short clips from movies on their Facebook accounts.
Marlow said his company will be for movie lovers – but it’s not snobby.
“It’s approachable,” he said. “Particularly the channel is approachable to a casual movie viewer so they can discover things that they love.”
Producer Ted Hope ("Adventureland," "Towelhead," "Happiness") and former Facebook chief privacy officer Chris Kelly are members of the board of directors.
