Cinelan, with its corporate sponsor General Electric, have announced an exclusive partnership with video-sharing site Vimeo to power the multi-platform distribution of its new documentary initiative Focus Forward. Cinelan will be working with award-winning documentary filmmakers, including Joe Berlinger, Lixin Fan, Liz Garbus, Alex Gibney, Steve James, Barbara Kopple, Ross Kauffman, Morgan Spurlock and Jessica Yu, to produce 30 three-minute films that will be featured at prestigious film festivals globally, followed by day-and-date distribution online to millions of viewers.
Cinelan has also announced here at the Toronto International Film Festival its initial festival partners. Cinelan has recruited the Toronto, Sundance and Tribeca film festivals, and this week announced a multi-year partnership with the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the world’s largest documentary film festival. Vimeo and IDFA will provide integrated support for Focus Forward, which is designed to educate and inspire a global audience about universal issues of concern. The Focus Forward films will premiere as collections curated by the programming teams at other major festivals in Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa, South America, and the Middle East beginning in 2012. The full roster of filmmakers, festival partners, and supporters will be announced in the coming months. For more information, visit: http://www.bit.ly/focusforward