Under the Milky Way’s slate of digital Originals is going global

Paris-based European digital aggregator Under The Milky Way (UMW) is celebrating the first year of its new distribution programme European Digital Talents (EDT), part of its Originals label, with a series of six documentary and fiction features made by ‘digital natives’, all financed outside the mainstream film industry.

“These filmmakers want their film to exist digitally only,” explains Muriel Joly-Monthiers, head of business development at UMW.

Six features have been made to date, with storylines encompassing madcap French surfers, ambitious artists in Kabul and a romance that blossoms amid the pandemic lockdown.

Pierre Denoyel and Nathan Curren’s Biarritz Surf Gang is a documentary celebrating the story of a group of French surfers and their wild adventures. They went from cult favourites to European championship status in the 1980s before falling from grace amid controversy and bad behaviour.

Louis Meunier’s Kabullywood is a fictional account of a group of young Afghan artists who decide to open a cultural centre in the heart of war-torn Kabul. Based on a true story, Meunier deploys documentary-style filming in local language Dari to add authenticity and grit to the project.

Locked In, directed by Luca Solina, is an Italian love story made by a cast and crew during the Covid lockdown in 2020 when they found themselves all living and shooting the film together.

Nicolas de Virieu’s basketball documentary Dunk Or Die follows the development of multi-ethnic French basketball troop ‘Slam Nation’, specialists in dunking, from its early beginnings to showcases across the globe.

Ferdia MacAnna’s Irish teen romantic comedy Danny Boy is set in 1980s Ireland and recalls an age before smartphones, replete with bad romantic life advice and terrible fashion. The film comes complete with an original, 1980s-sounding soundtrack.

Greek filmmaker The Boy (real name, Alexandros Voulgaris) has made Winona, about four young women. Shot using 16 mm, the project has a 1970s feel, and is packed with cinephile references and a surprise finale.

Taking VoD global

UMW launched in 2010 to globally exploit the catalogue titles from European studios such as Gaumont, Pathe and Studiocanal via VoD. It also works with local distributors and producers on individual productions and now has a library of over 6,000 titles. The aggregator partners with iTunes, Google and Amazon, as well as local VoD providers and has representatives in Japan, the US, Canada, Latin America, Spain, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia and the UK.

To launch EDT and the Originals label, UMW received just under €200,000 in backing from Creative Europe Media for the first year. It has subsequently secured an increase in funding for the label for the next three years. Twenty more films are planned.

By the end of March 2022, UWM will have rolled out all six films, across global and country specific VoD platforms. Success is measured both in terms of VoD platform viewing figures and also the visibility that the film gains outside of the platforms and audience eyeballs.

”We are doing a lot of work with the platforms to give the films the best visibility possible on the interface,” says Joly-Monthiers.

For each film UWM works with the filmmakers to creates an online buzz around the release. Locked In enjoyed a physical premiere in Milan while the launch of Biarritz Surf Gang tied in with a surf festival in Germany.

Digital distribution allows the films to reach niche audiences everywhere in the world, at a significantly lower cost than a traditional theatrical release and distribution model demands.

“We want to show these digital films can have an economic life,” says Joly-Monthiers. “We can provide an opportunity for films that do not go through theatres and can reach a certain type of audience on VoD platforms.”