15 January, 2009
By Jaman
LONDON – January 15, 2009 — Jaman.com, a leading community and online destination for high-definition and quality entertainment, today announced further expansion into the international market with the launch of its first localized site in the UK.
The Silicon Valley-based property launched in 2007 with a library of award-winning independent and international films and quickly amassed a community of global films fans. Jaman is one of the largest and fastest growing film websites in several regions including India.
Starting today, audiences in the UK can watch Jaman’s collection of premiere films across all platforms including PCs, Macs, TV screens and mobile devices. New Jaman members in the UK can visit www.jaman.com/GoUK to receive two free movies.
David Fischer, former Executive VP and Managing Director of MySpace and Fox Interactive Media, will serve as managing director of UK and international operations for Jaman. Under his leadership, Jaman has established offices in London’s Soho Square and recruited a team of industry leaders from the technology and entertainment fields. Red Johnson, a former BBC executive, has joined Jaman as Director of Programming and Ben Maher, former Endemol and MySpace executive, has joined as Commercial Director.
“With the explosion of short form and user-generated content online, global film audiences are increasingly hungry for quality entertainment,” said David Fischer. “Jaman’s international ambition is to build upon our leadership position serving a discerning, independently-minded global audience. Clearly the talent and creativity within the UK film industry has never been more apparent and we’re excited by the prospect of working with international filmmakers and distributors to help bring their films to a bigger worldwide audience.”
Jaman has more than 1000 titles for its UK launch including Peter Greenaway’s The Draughtsman’s Contract, Danish Dogme 95 film The Celebration (Festen), Dancer in the Dark starring Bjork and Catherine Deneuve, and Terence Davies’ stunning debut feature Distant Voices, Still Lives. These films complement Jaman’s extensive library of world cinema titles, which include a collection of international dramas, documentaries and shorts, Japanese anime titles and Bollywood hits. Globally, Jaman has more than 4,500 films in its catalogue.
Jaman announces the exclusive rights to debut on the site Peter Askin’s TRUMBO, one of the first films ever to have its premiere online in the UK Jaman will be the film’s exclusive distributor in the U.K for a six-week premiere period commencing tomorrow (Thursday, January 15). Jaman acquired the film rights from ContentFilm.
Jonathan Ford, Senior Vice President Digital Acquisition & Distribution at ContentFilm commented, “We are always interested in developing new distribution models and are pleased to partner with such a progressive service as Jaman for the online premiere of TRUMBO in the UK We see this as an exciting reflection of how film distribution is evolving to make top films such as TRUMBO even more accessible to the viewing public.”
TRUMBO is the story of Oscar-winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo who, after condemning the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, was placed on the infamous ‘Hollywood blacklist’ and jailed for a year. However, Trumbo never stopped writing and this film, based on his son Christopher’s loving play, pays tribute to the incendiary words and fighting spirit of this great writer.
Directed by Peter Askin, Trumbo’s passionate letters are given new breath through readings by an all-star cast including Kirk Douglas, Paul Giamatti, Liam Neeson, Donald Sutherland, Michael Douglas and Brian Dennehy.
In addition to its expansive catalogue and online premieres, the Jaman UK site also contains a number of unique features and special content offerings for members, including Jaman ‘tasters’ – exclusive preview footage of movies prior to their theatrical release. On January 16, Jaman will feature a taster of Route One Releasing’s upcoming British crime thriller Clubbed, produced by Martin Carr, directed by Neil Thompson and written by Geoff Thompson.
In terms of initial UK partnerships, has teamed with Pathé Films to become one of the promotional partners in the digital campaign for the release of Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, which received four Golden Globe Awards and three nominations in BAFTA’s longlead list.
The BFI has partnered with Jaman on a range of joint editorial, promotional and branding activities, as well as supplying UK rights to key titles in the BFI catalogue. Jaman has also entered into a joint venture with leading UK distributor Axiom Films which gives Jaman access to select titles from the Axiom catalogue.
Jane Giles, BFI Head of Content, said: “The BFI’s partnership with Jaman fits with our digital strategy of bringing films of cultural and historical interest to wider markets and audiences, and will increase access to our film and TV archives. Jaman is passionate about quality film and we are excited about the potential of this new platform.”
Jaman is also collaborating with the UK government-supported NESTA – the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts – to support the Take 12 (Digital Innovation in Film) programme, which is designed to help small independent British film companies embrace new business growth opportunities through digital distribution.
As part of its international expansion, Jaman is also planning to launch localized sites in the Commonwealth countries and in Latin America in the near future.
About Jaman Jaman is revolutionizing the way people discover, enjoy and share movies all over the world. Specializing in independent and world cinema, Jaman is pioneering entertainment on the Internet by delivering hi-definition films to a growing online community of fans and filmmakers. The company has a worldwide audience, with more than 70% of viewers coming from outside the US. Jaman’s founder and CEO Gaurav Dhillon was previously the CEO of Informatica (NASDAQ: INFA), an enterprise-software company that he co-founded in 1992 and took public in IPO in 1999. Jaman is based in San Mateo, California, and is backed by luminaries in technology and media. For more information, please visit www.jaman.com.
David Fischer, Managing Director, Jaman David is one of the most progressive leaders in the international digital media arena, having served as a founder, investor, or advisor to successful startups as well as major multinationals. He is currently Managing Director of Jaman.com, heading the international expansion of this leading next-generation online film and entertainment community. He is also founder and Chairman of the Xlantic Group, an innovative media group which specializes in the production and marketing of video, film and music worldwide; and a founding investor in FrontiersDigital, a digital marketing agency with offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and London.
About ContentFilm International (CFI) ContentFilm International (CFI) is the worldwide film and library sales arm of ContentFilm plc. CFI specializes in high quality and commercial feature films, and is able to assist film producers in securing finance. Content handles worldwide sales, marketing, and publicity on all titles. The recently formed Feature Films Library arm also concentrate on international sales on over 120 titles.
The latest CFI productions include ‘The Winning Season’ starring Sam Rockwell, ‘Extract’ starring Jason Bateman from director Mike Judge, Academy Award ® winner Andrea Arnold’s ‘Fish Tank’, ‘The Messenger’ with Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson produced by ‘Saving Private Ryan’s Mark Gordon, Ivin’s Last Ride’ starring Hugo Weaving, the true story of Hawaii’s ‘Princess Ka’iulani’ starring ‘The New World’s’ Q’orianka Kilcher, the action thriller ‘Horse’ with Diego Luna, intense suspense thriller ‘The Killing Room’ with Academy Award ® nominated Chloe Sevigny, Toby Wilkins’ brilliant horror ‘Splinter’, double Academy Award ® nominee Samantha Morton stars in ‘The Daisy Chain’, Anthony LaPaglia stars in the thriller based on true events ‘Balibo’, the finest of African Wildlife crew tells the breathtaking story of the ‘Elephants of the Okavango’, acclaimed director Fred Schepisi directs Australia’s top actors in ‘Last Man’, Academy Award® nominated actor William H. Macy makes his directorial debut with ‘Keep Coming Back’, John Stockwell directs the outrageous ‘Kid Cannabis’ and the comedy-horror ‘Release’ is directed by Stephen Leslie.
Completed films include, ‘August’ starring Josh Hartnett, Richard Attenborough’s ‘Closing the Ring’ which includes cast such as Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer and Mischa Barton; the horror ‘Outpost’ widely sold to Sony, Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Black Book’ and Jason Reitman’s ‘Thank You For Smoking’ which generated more than $20 million at the US box office and the inspirational documentary chosen by Sean Penn as his special President’s screening in Cannes ’08 ‘The Third Wave’.
CFI attends all major markets and festivals including Cannes, Venice, Toronto, AFM and Berlin. CFI is being managed in an executive capacity by Jamie Carmichael, President of ContentFilm International.
