Vimeo $10,000 Distribution Offer Beefed Up By On Demand Upgrades

Many of the indie creators who have debuted their works at the Toronto International Film Festival are searching for distribution deals. Some of these filmmakers will score wide releases, but for all the others, there’s Vimeo. The artsy platform is offering a $10,000 advance to all of the festival’s world premieres in exchange for exclusive Vimeo On Demand distribution for one month.

The offer affords indie creators with an online security blanket; while they are shopping around their products, they can be assured of Vimeo’s offer remaining on the table. On Vimeo’s side of things, the presence of highly touted indie films will be a big boon for its On Demand library. While other pay-to-view platforms have catered more to online creators, Vimeo has positioned itself as a champion of indie films (Its most prominent release to date is Some Girl(s), which also debuted at a film festival.) This new offer strengthens that position.

“Direct digital distribution is gaining momentum every day as both an alternative and a complement to traditional film distribution,” said Vimeo CEO, Kerry Trainor. “Vimeo is focused on empowering filmmakers with the highest quality platform to control the distribution and monetization of their content — in any territory, on any device, at any time, and across a wide range of price points. Our partnership with the Toronto International Film Festival allows us to test the addition of financial support to the power of the Vimeo On Demand platform.”

To help sweeten the deal, Vimeo has also unveiled a number of upgrades to its On Demand platform, which officially launched back in March. Participating creators can now vary prices for renting vs. buying, launch preorder campaigns, give promo codes, and make use of an advanced suite of statistics. Many Toronto debutants will be enticed by this package, and why not–film festivals and online video’s hippest platform are a match made in heaven.