“At last, a company that listens to the real needs of non-theatrical film societies”
Hard work, passion and commitment characterise the typical film society volunteer – not to mention organisational skills, dedication and a passion for cinema that borders on mania. Last year 625 different titles were screened by community cinemas around the UK, compared with 516 in commercial cinemas. However, there has been a repeated cry for help from this sector that the MPLC decided to address.
After listening carefully to the concerns of the British Federation of Film Societies (BFFS), the MPLC has been able to engineer a positive change for the community cinema sector. Together, BFFS and the MPLC opened discussions with MPLC studio partners to improve access to films, choice of providers and levels of customer service.
“We are determined to invest in UK film societies and rural cinema programmes,” said PJ Kuyper, President of MPLC, Los Angeles. “As soon as we realised that this sector was so poorly serviced, we wanted to help.”
The Motion Picture Licensing Company (International) Limited (MPLC) is a ‘non-theatrical’
licensing specialist, providing blanket licenses for screenings across 20 countries worldwide via the MPLC Umbrella Licence® solution. This licence is commonly used for incidental screenings and allows a licensee unlimited use of a home library of DVDs, Blu-ray or downloads from any legal retail or rental source, for one low annual fee. Until now, the MPLC was unable to offer a licence to film societies. Today, the MPLC Movie Licence has been created for film societies, without the physical distribution.
“Film piracy continues to damage the film industry in the UK and worldwide,” said James Angell, Director of Operations at FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft). “Provision of an appropriate and workable licensing scheme is a vital piece of the overall anti-piracy effort.”
An MPLC licensee may use their own film copy, in any format legally available for private,
home use. Two major Hollywood studios have already joined the programme: the MPLC can exclusively offer titles for film societies from Walt Disney Pictures and 20th Century Fox.
“Eureka! The bespoke BFFS-MPLC licensing service gives triumphant new meaning to win-win: community cinemas across the UK may not only start screening films using personal copies and downloads of DVDs, they now have an expanded list of popular titles to choose from – all for a reasonable fee,” said Donna Anton, chair of BFFS. “Technology marches on, yet BFFS's mission – since 1946 – as the national advocate for the film society sector remains as relevant and important as ever. We thank the MPLC for delivering on the needs of our sector.”
For full details go to www.mplcuk.com and click on ‘Movie Licence for Film Societies.’
Contact the MPLC licensing team:
Tel: +44(0) 1323 649 647
www.mplcuk.com
email: info@mplcuk.com