Kasimir Burgess’ drama gets VOD launch across most of Australia after its Sydney Film Festival premiere.

This Friday, as soon as the credits roll on the world premiere of the new Australian film Fell, which is one of 12 films in competition in the Sydney Film Festival, it will be available for US$9.35 (A$9.99) on video-on-demand for 50 hours across Australia. Nearly all of Australia anyway.

The world premiere of Fell via the internet is a game-changer in a multi-screen world,” said producer John Maynard. “It’s democratic, it’s inclusive and it’s about time.”

Maynard produced writer/director Kasimir Burgess debut film with Mary Minas under the Felix Media banner and his distribution company, Footprint Films, will release Fell locally. (Minas did a six-month internship with Felix and Footprint in 2012).

Fell is a tense, emotional story about a man whose young daughter is killed in a hit-and-run accident, and also about the man driving the truck that killed her. It stars Matt Nable and Daniel Henshall (Snowtown).

The film will be made available in some states through the Sydney Film Festival website – which has a string of Facebook pages servicing regional Australia because of the satellite travelling film festival – and in other states via the Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) website. Maynard has a good relationship with the biennial AFF – and there is not festival this year – and Natahsa Pincus, who wrote the script, has been involved in one of the AFF’s key initiatives.

“I want to make it (Fell) available to a wider core audience through the festival subscribers around Australia. It is part marketing, part commercial and the numbers (we get) will depend on the response through social media.”

The film is an arthouse title that is almost exactly the opposite of a Hollywood blockbuster in terms of style, audience appeal and budget.

The Yellow Affair is handling international sales. 

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