Slamdance, an annual film festival in Utah centered around emerging filmmakers will launch a new streaming platform for independent films, The Slamdance Channel. The channel will debut on January 27 in conjunction with the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival. It will feature new programming on February 7, after the festival has wrapped up.
The Slamdance Channel further fulfills the organization’s mission to provide artists with opportunities to reach movie audiences. The streaming platform is strongly against “corporate-created” content and will have a curated content library of 100+ titles that allows independent creators to gain recognition for their work, as well as monetary compensation. In the near future, programming will feature festival showcases from Slamdance Miami as well as other curated events. The organization will actively support filmmakers by sharing any profits fairly among its contributing artist community.
The president and co-founder of Slamdance, Peter Baxter said, “Slamdance has always looked at ways to overcome industry gatekeepers that block independently made films from being accessible and the Slamdance Channel represents our biggest effort yet. We are an anti-algorithm, artist-led collective, continually hellbent on sharing original film work with a wider audience. We’re looking forward to seeing how our Channel develops and fits into the bigger picture of a decentralized media future.”
Baxter, who has been running Slamdance since 1997, added, “The future of film, like any art form, depends on truly unique voices that defy simple classification and transcend analytics. We are celebrating these voices on the Channel who push the boundaries of what’s possible in storytelling.”
Access to the full festival lineup for 2022 (28th edition) will be available to viewers virtually for $10. This includes narrative features like “Actual People” (directed and written by Kit Zauhar) that follows a woman in college about to graduate and wants to pursue a boy from her hometown of Philly, along with “Ultrainocencia” (directed and written by Manuel Arija, co-written by David Climent and Pablo Molinero) a peculiar premise about test subjects who are on a mission to prove the legitimacy of God in a scientific experiment run by a mysterious religious organization.
After February 7, the Slamdance Channel will cost $7.99 per month, $23.99 for a three-month subscription, or $74.99 per year. However, students with a .edu address can have access to the service for $4.99 per month, $14.99 for three months, or $50 annually. There is also a free trial as well in case viewers only want to browse for a short amount of time.
Additionally, Slamdance alumni and programmers will have yearly access to the channel for free, plus any filmmakers and writers who have submitted their work to the festival will be given a free pass for 12 months.
The Slamdance Channel will be supported by Apple TV, Firestick, Roku, and online.
About Slamdance Film Festival
Founded in 1995 by Dan Mirvish, Jon Fitzgerald, Shane Kuhn, Peter Baxter, and Paul Rachman, the guys created Slamdance after they had been unsuccessful in submitting films to the Sundance Film Festival. The annual week-long festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in late January. The organization also hosts a screenplay competition, workshops, screenings throughout the year, and other events.
This year, the 28th edition Slamdance Film Festival has a feature competition lineup of 23 premieres, including 13 World, 6 North American, and 4 U.S. debuts. The films have been chosen from over 1,124 submissions, from filmmakers across the globe like Germany, Australia, Iran, Canada, China, Italy, Poland, and the UK. Unique to Slamdance, all competition films must be feature-length, directorial debuts without U.S. distribution, and have budgets of less than $1 million.
In the meantime, here are similar independent film streaming services to check out:
- iNDIEFLIX ($4.99/month)
- Fandor (free or $4.99/month)
- Indie Pix ($5.99/month)
- The Film Detective (free or $3.99/month)