Overview
A night at the movies may not be possible due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, but Auckland's Academy Cinemas is hellbent on bringing the best independent, foreign and classic titles to Kiwi audiences.
The new streaming service Academy OnDemand comes after the cinema noticed a lack of independent and foreign films available on local on-demand services. Planning for the service had already been underway for a number of months, but with COVID-19 lockdown in effect, it was pulled forward to ensure the nation's appetite for quality independent film is being met.
Academy OnDemand has teamed up with a number of local film distributors like Vendetta, Rialto and Madman to curate a platform hosting new releases and classic titles to rent. Launch titles include local chicken breeder doco Pecking Order, Oscar-winning film Parasite, and Ant Timpson's comedy thriller Come to Daddy.
Recommendations from the New Zealand International Film Festival include Chinese noir The Wild Goose Lake, Robert Pattinson crime thriller Good Time and black comedy conspiracy thriller Under the Silver Lake. Elsewhere, the service is split into categories like 'Female Focus', 'LGBTQI+' and 'Oddities and Obscurities'.
Academy OnDemand will be curated by Academy's passionate team of cinephiles, and will include a continuation of the popular $5 Wednesdays, giving customers the opportunity to rent recent titles at a discounted price. Elsewhere, pricing on the platform varies from $4.99 to $7.99 to rent classic and recent release films for seven days. The Academy is also working to host premium films that are brand new to market.