Press Release Kino Lorber Announces Launch of Kino Now Digital Platform (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Kino Lorber Announces Launch of
Kino Now Digital Platform
Over 600 Theatrical Hits, Classic Films and International Award Winners from the extensive Kino Lorber Catalog readily available for rental and purchase a click away on KinoNow.com

Hundreds of more titles rolling out later this year will include early access to brand new releases and exclusive titles unavailable elsewhere

New York, NY -- Sept. 30, 2019 -- Kino Lorber is proud to announce the launch of Kino Now, the arthouse distributor's new VOD platform showcasing over 600 new releases, classics, and award winning international films. An additional 600 films will be added over the next several months, all from the company's extensive library. Kino Now brings movie lovers the masterworks of yesterday and new films destined to be the classics of tomorrow. Available a click away for rental and purchase all in a one-stop shop, this superbly curated digital library brings new convenience to savoring great cinema at home, as well as allowing film lovers to build permanent digital collections of their favorites to watch whenever they want on any device. Kino Now will offer exclusive early access to new theatrical releases, festival hits and exclusive titles not available on other streaming platforms or not yet available on home video.

The platform will also include special "bundle" offerings of selected hard-to-find titles as well as beloved collections from renowned filmmakers from all over the world and throughout cinema history. Collections include themes like "Episodic Cinema" featuring the best of international TV series (including Deutschland 83, and the Emmy Award-nominated Bad Banks), Documentary Series & Extended Play (including Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth), Auteur Collections built around world-renowned filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard, Lina Wertmüller and Fritz Lang, and the Pioneers of Cinema restorations of the early works of African American filmmakers and the first women filmmakers.

The Playlist section will soon recommend personalized, specially curated selections that will be regularly updated, tied in with major international film festivals, holidays and cultural events. They will also be curated around themes such as Italian, French and German cinema, Hispanic Heritage, Festival Winners & Oscar Runs, Euro Horror, Director's Spotlights, First Films, and Staff Picks.

The site will be annually refreshed with over 50 new theatrical releases from Kino Lorber's first run and repertory divisions and over 500 yearly additional titles as "festival direct" exclusives and indie art house digital premieres.

"We've been leaders in building a direct to consumer business with physical media and now is the time to assert our leadership in the direct to digital space," says Richard Lorber, President & CEO of Kino Lorber. "Our superb library will be continually enhanced by the coming of newly acclaimed and award winning theatrical releases. We believe a younger generation of cinema lovers will embrace our collection as a kind of art house iTunes with Kino Now putting at their fingertips cinema masterworks of the past and the classics of tomorrow."

New titles coming soon to Kino Now include Rick Alverson's The Mountain, starring Tye Sheridan and Jeff Goldblum, Chinese auteur Bi Gan's box office hit Long Day's Journey into Night, Lila Avilés' The Chambermaid (Mexico's current official Oscar® submission), Franco Rosso's 1980s British reggae hit Babylon, renowned international documentaries like Walking on Water, an intimate portrait of the artist Christo, and urgent climate change spectacle, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch and many more.
Current selections include new arthouse hits such as Abel Ferrara's Pasolini (starring Willem Dafoe), and Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt's boldly hilarious Diamantino; new restorations of repertory re-releases, such as Frank Simon's queer drag classic The Queen; critically-acclaimed documentaries such as Alexandra Dean's Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, Matt Tyrnauer's Studio 54, and Pamela Green's Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché; and classics of world cinema from master directors such as Jean-Luc Godard (Alphaville, The Image Book), Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob le Flambeur), Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad), and a collection of seven films by Lina Wertmüller, the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director and upcoming recipient of the Academy Honorary Award.

For repertory lovers, a deep selection of catalog titles from the company's Kino Classics label, ranging from key landmarks of film history including Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, and silent comedies by Buster Keaton, to groundbreaking archival collections like Pioneers of African-American Cinema and Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, and cult classics from genre masters Mario Bava, Jean Rollin and Jess Franco to contemporary cult favorites like Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Kino Now will also offer a wide range of documentaries, including Oscar® nominees Gianfranco Rosi's Fire at Sea and Talal Derki's Of Fathers and Sons as well as the Alive Mind Cinema catalog titles that focus on spirituality and consciousness.

Digital rentals and purchases can be watched on KinoNow.com. The service is available on Roku and will be available soon on AppleTV, Amazon Fire, and more.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The streaming pie keeps getting sliced up into smaller pieces.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

While I do not think I would be inclined to purchase a film from such a niche service -- the risk of the service disappearing would be too great -- I could see renting some films from them if the price is right. There are quite a few Kino titles I have been reluctant to purchase on disc as blind buys.

 

[Chris Will]

This service may have the greatest of intentions but, I refuse to support any new digital movie storefront, besides iTunes and Vudu, especially one that doesn't support Movies Anywhere. Been burned by small time storefronts that don't last.

 

[Worth]

I like the fact that it's not a subscription service. Kino has a number of titles that I'd like to see that aren't available on iTunes or Kanopy. Now I can rent them.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Interestingly, when perusing their films via the Roku app, when selecting "A Star is Born" the two options are "subscribe" and "Purchase video - $4.99". If you select subscribe, you are sent to a screen to select your plan, but no plans are offered. You can also sign in from that screen.

I have yet to find a film available to rent. Every title (other than the one mentioned above) appears to be $4.99 to purchase as the only option.

 

[Worth]

Interestingly, when perusing their films via the Roku app, when selecting "A Star is Born" the two options are "subscribe" and "Purchase video - $4.99". If you select subscribe, you are sent to a screen to select your plan, but no plans are offered. You can also sign in from that screen.

I have yet to find a film available to rent. Every title (other than the one mentioned above) appears to be $4.99 to purchase as the only option.

That's strange. I haven't tried renting anything yet, but on each film's info page there are options to buy for $9.99 or rent for $4.99. I'm also in Canada, so maybe that makes a difference.

 

[Nick*Z]

Kino Lorber Announces Launch of
Kino Now Digital Platform
Over 600 Theatrical Hits, Classic Films and International Award Winners from the extensive Kino Lorber Catalog readily available for rental and purchase a click away on KinoNow.com

Hundreds of more titles rolling out later this year will include early access to brand new releases and exclusive titles unavailable elsewhere

New York, NY -- Sept. 30, 2019 -- Kino Lorber is proud to announce the launch of Kino Now, the arthouse distributor's new VOD platform showcasing over 600 new releases, classics, and award winning international films. An additional 600 films will be added over the next several months, all from the company's extensive library. Kino Now brings movie lovers the masterworks of yesterday and new films destined to be the classics of tomorrow. Available a click away for rental and purchase all in a one-stop shop, this superbly curated digital library brings new convenience to savoring great cinema at home, as well as allowing film lovers to build permanent digital collections of their favorites to watch whenever they want on any device. Kino Now will offer exclusive early access to new theatrical releases, festival hits and exclusive titles not available on other streaming platforms or not yet available on home video.

The platform will also include special "bundle" offerings of selected hard-to-find titles as well as beloved collections from renowned filmmakers from all over the world and throughout cinema history. Collections include themes like "Episodic Cinema" featuring the best of international TV series (including Deutschland 83, and the Emmy Award-nominated Bad Banks), Documentary Series & Extended Play (including Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth), Auteur Collections built around world-renowned filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard, Lina Wertmüller and Fritz Lang, and the Pioneers of Cinema restorations of the early works of African American filmmakers and the first women filmmakers.

The Playlist section will soon recommend personalized, specially curated selections that will be regularly updated, tied in with major international film festivals, holidays and cultural events. They will also be curated around themes such as Italian, French and German cinema, Hispanic Heritage, Festival Winners & Oscar Runs, Euro Horror, Director's Spotlights, First Films, and Staff Picks.

The site will be annually refreshed with over 50 new theatrical releases from Kino Lorber's first run and repertory divisions and over 500 yearly additional titles as "festival direct" exclusives and indie art house digital premieres.

"We've been leaders in building a direct to consumer business with physical media and now is the time to assert our leadership in the direct to digital space," says Richard Lorber, President & CEO of Kino Lorber. "Our superb library will be continually enhanced by the coming of newly acclaimed and award winning theatrical releases. We believe a younger generation of cinema lovers will embrace our collection as a kind of art house iTunes with Kino Now putting at their fingertips cinema masterworks of the past and the classics of tomorrow."

New titles coming soon to Kino Now include Rick Alverson's The Mountain, starring Tye Sheridan and Jeff Goldblum, Chinese auteur Bi Gan's box office hit Long Day's Journey into Night, Lila Avilés' The Chambermaid (Mexico's current official Oscar® submission), Franco Rosso's 1980s British reggae hit Babylon, renowned international documentaries like Walking on Water, an intimate portrait of the artist Christo, and urgent climate change spectacle, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch and many more.
Current selections include new arthouse hits such as Abel Ferrara's Pasolini (starring Willem Dafoe), and Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt's boldly hilarious Diamantino; new restorations of repertory re-releases, such as Frank Simon's queer drag classic The Queen; critically-acclaimed documentaries such as Alexandra Dean's Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, Matt Tyrnauer's Studio 54, and Pamela Green's Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché; and classics of world cinema from master directors such as Jean-Luc Godard (Alphaville, The Image Book), Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob le Flambeur), Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad), and a collection of seven films by Lina Wertmüller, the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director and upcoming recipient of the Academy Honorary Award.

For repertory lovers, a deep selection of catalog titles from the company's Kino Classics label, ranging from key landmarks of film history including Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, and silent comedies by Buster Keaton, to groundbreaking archival collections like Pioneers of African-American Cinema and Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, and cult classics from genre masters Mario Bava, Jean Rollin and Jess Franco to contemporary cult favorites like Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Kino Now will also offer a wide range of documentaries, including Oscar® nominees Gianfranco Rosi's Fire at Sea and Talal Derki's Of Fathers and Sons as well as the Alive Mind Cinema catalog titles that focus on spirituality and consciousness.

Digital rentals and purchases can be watched on KinoNow.com. The service is available on Roku and will be available soon on AppleTV, Amazon Fire, and more.

See, the real problem I have with all these indie streaming sites is that there's no one comprehensive place to go to get your fix. Also, the recent Klute debacle on Criterion's channel, suggests yet again, territorial grazing rights will be an issue for many who want to watch a movie, only to have it yanked from the lineup before they get the chance. Want a Disney flick - Disney +, a Warner/MGM flick, Criterion, all the rest, Kino. Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. et al. More fragmenting and compartmentalizing of entertainment, only to thoroughly confuse someone more who is searching for deep catalog stuff. Can't afford all subscriptions so have to choose - or, do none and just buy the titles you can't live without on physical media, and watch where and whenever you like.

 

[Mark-P]

Has anybody purchased any movies through KinoNow? If so, is the streaming quality up to iTunes standards? HD? 4K? If possible I'd like to be able to support Kino with digital purchases instead of amassing more discs that I just don't have room for. I'm also a little wary of the permanence of ownership, should the service eventually get discontinued.

 

[Mark-P]

So I decided to be the Guinea pig and test a $4.99 purchase. I have both good and bad news to report. First off the bad news, while it is HD, the bit rate is lower than iTunes. It is 3 mbps whereas iTunes is more like 5 mbps for HD. Second, I’m not happy that KinoNow doesn’t encode at 24 fps. The title I bought (as well as all the previews) is at 30 fps. Now the good news is that KinoNow allows you to download an HD file (same quality as stream) to your hard drive, and that download is unencrypted for your personal use, so that you can transfer it to a media server or import it into your iTunes library. KinoNow does put their titles on sale so you can get bargains. I’m not sure the low bit rate is worth it, and I probably won’t buy any more titles for now.