Management summary Research study „Limiting the unlimited: curation in Czech film distribution in the digital era “

The study assesses the impact of the digitalization of film projection and the rise of online distribution on the choice of films available to viewers in Czechia from 2007 to the present. It briefly summarizes debates on the availability of films in the digital era and examines implications of these debates for the small markets of Central and Eastern Europe. The first part of analysis focuses on theatrical distribution. It demonstrates that the selection of films available in Czech cinemas has widened after the digitalization of film projection, however, with a disproportionately high prevalence of domestic and European films and to the detriment of non-European non-US films. The second part explores through a case study of the VOD portal AeroVOD the offerings provided by Czech online distribution and concludes that they are shaped by similar principles as those governing theatrical distribution. Furthermore, the analysis shows that older films are scarcely included in the VOD catalogue, which is understandable from the perspective of industrial logic but hardly provides the abundance of films originally promised by online distribution. Subsequent analysis shows how festival awards influence the availability of films in Czech distribution and comes to the conclusion that, despite the rising number of festivals, only a very small number of festivals actually influence what viewer in Czechia is able to see.

Target groups of stakeholders: Researchers in the given field

Citation: Hanzlík, J. (2020). Limiting the unlimited: curation in Czech film distribution in the digital era [Jak omezit neomezené: Dramaturgie v české filmové distribuci v digitální éře]. Studies in Eastern European Cinema 11(3). DOI: 10.1080/2040350X.2020.1800892