Apple seen hunting movie acquisitions at festival

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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The company, which has mostly focused its content plans on television, is reportedly eying movie buys at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Toronto International Film Festival


According to a report by Variety Wednesday, two top executives for Apple's nascent entertainment content effort are heading to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this week, with an eye towards acquiring films.

Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, the heads of programming for Apple's content operation, are headed to Toronto "checkbooks in hand as they look to make potential acquisitions that could fill out the content pipeline for the company's still-under-wraps entertainment service," Variety said.

At TIFF and major film festivals like it, acclaimed films often premiere, and then are given lucrative distribution deals. Amazon and Netflix, in recent years, have joined more traditional Hollywood players in competing for top movies. Amazon's movie operation, Variety said, is also headed to Toronto with a similar mission in mind.

Apple's participation is significant because nearly all of its high-profile media deals so far have involved television and not movies, and TIFF is a film festival. Apple was reported in June to be pushing to acquire an animated feature film from Cartoon Saloon, but no such deal was ever announced.

If Apple were to acquire a major film out of Toronto, it's unclear what distribution scheme it would use for it. Amazon Studios in recent years has acquired films and distributed them, often with partners, in theaters before placing them on the Amazon Prime service. Netflix has done the same with some festival-acquired titles, while bringing others direct to its streaming service.

Apple, of course, has not yet announced or launched its content platform, although an analyst note from Morgan Stanley Wednesday predicted its video business will rival Netflix by 2025.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    mknelsonmknelson Posts: 1,124member
    It'll be a tiff at the TIFF?
    philboogiewatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 12
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Movie festivals are a good place to hunt for movies.
    Soliirelandwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 12
    anomeanome Posts: 1,533member

    As long as they're doing catch and release.

    (Do you see what I did there?)

    Soliradarthekatwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 12
    mac_dogmac_dog Posts: 1,069member
    anome said:

    As long as they're doing catch and release.

    (Do you see what I did there?)

    No. 
  • Reply 5 of 12
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Oh no! Apple must be planning on making the pretentious version of Netflix.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    ascii said:
    Oh no! Apple must be planning on making the pretentious version of Netflix.
    Why pretentious? If anything it appears Apple’s is far more focused about their plans than Netflix. Netflix seem to be more throwing money around in trying to get content and I question if that’s a good approach on the average to keep quality up overall. My mother said in the last few months than Netflix programming quality is not what it used to be and most of the stuff the seem to be putting out now is crap. It’s funny in some ways because you’d think we all of their money Apple would be the ones throwing more money than Netflix at the problem. Apple seem to be playing an obvious strategy of focusing on quality over quantity. But as the recent posts about Cook revealed, I certainly agree with Cook in saying releasing the package on Android and other platforms is a much required move if they are indeed serious about this service.

    And when it comes to UI and business practices as of late, Netflix couldn’t be more repeatedly user hostile. Renaming grid view in My List to Netflix Suggests—paving the way for them to add to my list: fuckers. Pre-rolling ads for other shows left right and centre and not listening to feedback that their user’s hate that—paving the way for ads of other kinds. Producing terrible apps.
    edited September 2018 claire1watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 12
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    ireland said:
    ascii said:
    Oh no! Apple must be planning on making the pretentious version of Netflix.
    Why pretentious? If anything it appears Apple’s is far more focused about their plans than Netflix. Netflix seem to be more throwing money around in trying to get content and I question if that’s a good approach on the average to keep quality up overall. My mother said in the last few months than Netflix programming quality is not what it used to be and most of the stuff the seem to be putting out now is crap. It’s funny in some ways because you’d think we all of their money Apple would be the ones throwing more money than Netflix at the problem. Apple seem to be playing an obvious strategy of focusing on quality over quantity. But as the recent posts about Cook revealed, I certainly agree with Cook in saying releasing the package on Android and other platforms is a much required move if they are indeed serious about this service.

    And when it comes to UI and business practices as of late, Netflix couldn’t be more repeatedly user hostile. Renaming grid view in My List to Netflix Suggests—paving the way for them to add to my list: fuckers. Pre-rolling ads for other shows left right and centre and not listening to feedback that their user’s hate that—paving the way for ads of other kinds. Producing terrible apps.
    I just mean that film festivals usually have lower budget more experimental/intellectual films than (for example) Marvel movies. But yeah, they're not all pretentious, I have been to film festival movies in London and Sydney that were funny and lighthearted.

    But regarding focussed strategy, the advantage that an online TV station has over a traditional one is that they know exactly what their customers are watching. So if you have such a perfect feedback channel, isn't it a logical strategy to spam stuff and adapt to what people actually watch, rather than trying to pick winners in advance of that mechanism?

    Apple will know this of course, which makes me think simply giving people what they want is not their only goal with this TV service. They probably want to try and influence the culture in a way they think is good/tasteful and also try to keep up the image of their brand.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 12
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    ascii said:
    Oh no! Apple must be planning on making the pretentious version of Netflix.
    “Wokeflix”
    patchythepirate
  • Reply 9 of 12
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,727member
    ascii said:
    ireland said:
    ascii said:
    Oh no! Apple must be planning on making the pretentious version of Netflix.
    Why pretentious?
    I just mean that film festivals usually have lower budget more experimental/intellectual films than (for example) Marvel movies. But yeah, they're not all pretentious, I have been to film festival movies in London and Sydney that were funny and lighthearted.
    There are both big budget and small budget films premiered at TIFF, covering topics of all interest and movie genres.  Some of today's small budget film producers are tomorrow's blockbuster producers.  It's smart for Apple to be looking to work with talented, up-and-coming film production crews before it costs a small fortune to do so.  Your shallow analysis of film festivals is irrelevant.
    claire1
  • Reply 10 of 12
    claire1claire1 Posts: 510unconfirmed, member
    auxio said:
    ascii said:
    ireland said:
    ascii said:
    Oh no! Apple must be planning on making the pretentious version of Netflix.
    Why pretentious?
    I just mean that film festivals usually have lower budget more experimental/intellectual films than (for example) Marvel movies. But yeah, they're not all pretentious, I have been to film festival movies in London and Sydney that were funny and lighthearted.
    There are both big budget and small budget films premiered at TIFF, covering topics of all interest and movie genres.  Some of today's small budget film producers are tomorrow's blockbuster producers.  It's smart for Apple to be looking to work with talented, up-and-coming film production crews before it costs a small fortune to do so.  Your shallow analysis of film festivals is irrelevant.
    I thought this was obvious though?

    Will Apples service be the App Store of films where independent creators have easy access to upload?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 12
    anomeanome Posts: 1,533member
    mac_dog said:
    anome said:

    As long as they're doing catch and release.

    (Do you see what I did there?)

    No. 
    Oh well, I'd better explain it in great detail, and with full footnotes. After all, the best joke is one you have to explain to everyone how clever it is.

    watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 12
    badmonkbadmonk Posts: 1,293member
    TIFF is a great choice for Apple.  Having attended TIFF a handful of times in the past, the quality is generally good and most of these movies never get North American distribution.  As the name suggests the focus is on international film, perfect for Apple.
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