With over 3000 entries from 61 countries, the 2014 Festival del film Locarno team took an innovative approach to organize film submissions, help programmers review films efficiently, and streamline some of their onsite production workflows.

Requiring a solution that could handle a wide range of films and formats as well as an easy-to-use environment for effective film critique, the Festival’s operations team utilized Sony Media Cloud Services’ Ci cloud-based video platform to test the upload of film submissions and establish a secure way for the Festival Committee to review films.

Ci will also assist in the production workflow of the coverage of this year’s Festival with the intent to extend Ci’s capabilities throughout Festival operations in the years to come.

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“We are constantly looking to discover new ways to innovate our Festival – both for our spectators and behind the scenes. With world premieres, shorts, and experimental cinema from all over the world, we wanted a forward-thinking solution that could support every professional format, our Festival artistic direction, and our operations team,” said Mario Timbal, chief operating officer, Festival del film Locarno.

“Ci’s collaborative platform delivered on all fronts. It’s been incredibly easy to use, has given our programmers more time to accurately assess each film, and will help us in the future as we further the use of Ci’s technology to add more capability to our operations.”

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Celebrated alongside Cannes, Sundance, San Sebastian, Berlin and Toronto as one of the top six film festivals in the world, the Festival del Film Locarno represents films from more than 45 countries and attracts an annual audience of more than 160,000 people and during the 67th Film Festival more than 260 films will be shown.

Sony Media Cloud Services’ Ci digital production workspace allows creative professionals and next generation filmmakers to upload footage or dailies from camera to cloud, utilize collaborative apps with virtual teams worldwide, share cuts securely with permission settings, and create team or project-based workspaces.

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“Throughout its history, the Festival del film Locarno has occupied a unique position in the landscape of the major film festivals for its innovative and diverse programming,” said Naomi Climer, president, Sony Media Cloud Services. “We designed Ci for every generation and genre of cinema, and are thrilled to partner with Locarno for their submission, review, and workflow process and look forward to playing a significant role in the Festival for years to come.”

The Festival del film Locarno joins the growing roster of media entities integrating cloud technologies from Sony Media Cloud Services into their production workflows.

Ci is offered in a variety of subscriptions and packages to suit all production budgets and workflow requirements with personal, team, and company workspaces available online.

Throughout its 67-year history, the Festival del film Locarno has occupied a unique position in the landscape of the major film festivals. Every August, for eleven days the Swiss-Italian town of Locarno, right in the heart of Europe, becomes the world capital of auteur cinema.

Geographically located at the crossroads of three European regions, (Italian, German and French), Locarno is, precisely because of its enormous and multi-cultural audience, a unique launch platform for new films from all over the world.

Photo courtesy: Festival del film Locarno