Considered throughout the world as a reference, French-speaking Belgian cinema is honored on the international scene on the occasion of the Magritte du Cinéma, the equivalent of the César in France or the Oscars in the United States.
This award ceremony, organized at the Square in Brussels, rewards the films and Belgian cinema professionals who have marked the year.
To elect the winners, it is still necessary to be able to watch the films in the best conditions... The OTT Bee solution propelled by Kinow has precisely been able to meet the needs of Magritte to offer a new private and secure VOD application for voters.
A VOD platform to view the films in the running and vote
The Magritte are awarded to the best productions and the best artists in Belgian cinema.
Upstream, two lists are compiled by the board of directors of the André Delvaux Academy, made up of Belgian cinema professionals:
- Films in competition, short and feature films released in theatres during the past year;
- Belgian actors, directors and technicians who participated in one of the films in the race.
The films were then previously collected in a DVD box sent to the jurors. Note that the Magritte jury is made up of around 950 voters this year, all members of the André Delvaux Academy.
To simplify the process, both on the side of the André Delvaux Academy and on the side of the voters, the films are now accessible on a private streaming platform.
A platform in the form of a screening room
The André Delvaux Academy, on the initiative of the Magritte du Cinéma, wanted to launch a temporary platform, for 5 months of distribution, during the time of the votes:
- A first round of voting to select the nominated films and artists;
- A second round to designate the Magritte winners in 22 categories.
For management, maintenance and cost reasons, the solution of an annualized screening room * platform naturally imposed itself with Bee propelled by Kinow. Thanks to our turnkey OTT solution, Magritte organizers can administer the platform simply and independently!
*A Screening room consists of a B-to-B platform where access to the video catalog is reserved for certain privileged users. Thus, within the framework of the Magritte du Cinéma, the organizers can restrict access to the platform to the jury of filmmakers.
Focus on the new Magritte private VOD application
What are the features ?
Private access, video catalog and viewing statistics
The Magritte site is in the form of a web application with restricted access (private VOD).
The video platform has, when it is released:
- A catalog of 87 films, short and feature films combined;
- Nearly 2,000 user accounts;
- More than 5,000 hours of viewing (audience and viewing statistics integrated into the solution).
Access is reserved for jurors, film professionals who are members of the André Delvaux Academy.
The key features of the Magritte VOD platform
The organizers wanted to be able to broadcast the films in competition to the various jurors in a secure screening room type space.
The Bee propelled by Kinow team has therefore developed a feature to block access to the application with a connection request, so that only identified members can access the video catalog.
Concretely, the jurors received a login email, including username and password previously defined by the person in charge of the platform.
This model may change following the 13th Magritte ceremony, organized on March 4, 2023: a paying access to the public is under discussion. Objective: allow any movie lover to watch the best movies of the French-speaking Belgian cinema, at any time, on the web application.
“Bee propelled by Kinow is a complete, secure, customizable and scalable solution, which we were able to take in hand quite easily and which already delights all our members.”
Kassandra DECLOUX – coordinator of the André Delvaux Academy
“ The Académie des César in France, Filmpraïs in Luxembourg, Les Magritte du cinéma in Belgium: we are proud to participate in major cinema events through the deployment of screening rooms, private VOD platforms, totally personalized and perfectly secured.”
Pierre ANTOINE - Director of the Kinow Business Unit, Alpha Networks
If you too want to create your own screening room platform, contact our teams to discover our turnkey OTT solution!