Buyers download Boermans' App

UK sales outfit High Point has clocked up a raft of sales on interactive thriller App, which encourages audiences to engage with the film via their mobile phones.

Bobby Boermans directs the Dutch thriller about a young psychology student who is terrorized by a mysterious app.

Kees Abrahams, Edvard van’t Wout and Robin de Levita produce for 2CFilm. Hannah Hoekstra stars.

Sales were locked in during Cannes with Germany (ZDF), Japan (Nettai Museum), South Korea (Movement Pictures/Markers Entertainment), China (Leomus Culture & Media), Russia (Exponenta), Hong Kong (UA Films) and Taiwan (Cineplex Development Co).

Negotiations are in the latter stages for the UK, France, Italy and Spain.

Based on SyncNow audio digital watermarking by Civolution, the unique app allows viewers to see, directly on their phones, key events and character clues beyond what plays out on the big screen.

Buyers were directed by High Point to the App Store and GooglePlay, where they were able to download a “second screen” smartphone app, designed especially to work in parallel to the film. The technology also works off TV and computer screens.

The film will now play June 24-27 at the European Film Promotion Premieres NY Industry Screenings, where it is one of six European films selected to screen at the event.

High Point chief operating officer Julie Delaney told ScreenDaily: “It’s been truly fantastic to see how enthusiastically buyers received the film during Cannes - and that was just its first market outing. With New York and the London UK Film Focus (LUFF) both coming up later this month, we’re anticipating a shiny future for App.”