Filmwerte offers a special streaming platform with filmfriend.de and is now also targeting the American market
Unlimited streaming from a selection of carefully curated European films for just 10 euros a year? With filmfriend.de, the Potsdam-based company filmwerte has created a film portal that expands the offerings of public libraries. “We are the Netflix for library users – with a slightly different range of programs,” says Benoît Calvez, who is responsible for licensing and editing at filmwerte and, as CEO of the American subsidiary myfilmfriend.com, is in charge of the North American market. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg, more than 800 libraries are now involved. So if you have an annual public library card for 10 euros, as in Berlin (19 euros per year in Potsdam), you can access more than 5,000 films from the comfort of your own home. The Berlin public library network VÖBB was also the first cooperation partner when filmfriend was launched from Potsdam in 2017.
Hand-picked films from European cinema
In order to ensure optimal access for everyone, filmwerte has developed its own video-on-demand system to meet their needs. Library users can connect via an interface using their library card details either on the website of their library network or directly via www.filmfriend.de. Some film gems can be discovered here, as the filmfriend team carefully curates and edits all the films offered on the platform. The team has specialists for each category. In the documentary film section, filmfriend works together with a documentary film producer, while the kids’ section is staffed by a former editor from the film service with a focus on children’s films/special children’s films.
In June, for global Pride Month, the homepage recommended hand-picked LGBTIQ+ films about queer cinema, including the French drama “120 BPM”, which received 99% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and is one of the ten best LGBTQ+ films of all time. But the selection also includes internationally renowned dramas such as “Dallas Buyers Club” and “Blue is a Warm Color”.
Anyone who has difficulty deciding which films to watch will find unusual categories such as “Latin America trip”, “Nature on your doorstep”, “We love New York” or “Films about filming” helpful in discovering something new. “We don’t license everything and we don’t offer everything – that doesn’t make sense for us. We attach great importance to curating the platform and select the films carefully. We also respond to suggestions from the libraries and create our own film categories for planned exhibitions or anniversaries, such as the recent Sesame Street anniversary,” says Benoît Calvez. There are currently over 200 licensors. “They are happy to work with us because they know that we carefully review the films and highlight them editorially on the platform.”
One streaming solution for many platforms
Thanks to the technical white label solution for video streaming, filmwerte not only offers the filmfriend platform, but also provides the product as a streaming solution for film festivals and municipal cinemas. Cinema Lovers was one such project. Here, cinemas offered new releases directly for home viewing during the pandemic. Cinemas are now open again and many cinemas are continuing the streaming experience – partly to provide their regular customers with a fifth or sixth digital movie theater. If, for example, the latest Tarantino is showing, they can also offer the director’s previous films. The German referee association is also a customer of filmwerte and trains its young referees using videos that can be accessed from home.
As a platform for libraries, the company is the number 1 in Germany. “You could also say that we are helping libraries with digitization. In the past, many DVDs and Blue-rays were borrowed there, but today everyone is used to streaming and instant access. We provide this service for the libraries.” In this respect, filmfriend occupies a nice niche, as they have focused strongly on European independent cinema, for which there are few alternatives in the platform offering. They do not see themselves in the same league as megacorporations such as Amazon and Netflix, but as a German company are pursuing a very unique concept and streaming offer.
Filmfriend goes America
Their success and the response in Europe prove them right. Which is why the North American market has now become the focus of Filmwerte’s attention. Benoît Calvez is also conducting the interview for the MediaTech Hub blog from New York. He is currently on a stopover there for a few appointments before heading to Chicago for the American Library Association Annual Conference – the largest trade fair of its kind in the USA. “We are making rapid progress in Europe and there is a strong demand for European products and films in North America,” says Calvez. Libraries in the USA and Canada are also a real institution there. Compared to Germany, where around 10 percent have a library card, the figure there is 53 percent – so there is a lot of potential. European licensors can offer their films on myfilmfriend.com, which was set up for North America, and thus ensure additional distribution.
The first contact with the American market came about through a delegation with the MediaTech Hub in March 2023. During the South by Southwest Conference (SXSW) in Austin/Texas, participants from the hub visited incubators, start-ups and the local digital scene. Calvez describes the contacts and discussions as so inspiring and convincing that the decision was subsequently made to locate the American subsidiary in Austin. Here, it was possible to put out feelers in the city, which is considered the next big ecosystem for tech and media centers after Silicon Valley. Companies such as Tesla and Dell have their headquarters there and the far more affordable rents and innovative spirit are attracting start-ups to the Texan metropolis in droves.
“There, too, we are proud of our origins in Potsdam. We score points with the Babelsberg location, one of the European centers of excellence for film and media technologies. And we bring European content there. So if you would like to work with us in this area: We are always on the lookout for good material,” Calvez addresses his appeal to distributors.
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The media technologies of the future are already being used today – not only in the entertainment sector but in a wide variety of industries. For our MediaTech Hub Potsdam blog, we talk to tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and researchers once a month and tell the stories behind their innovative business models, ideas, projects or collaborations.
