As Los Angeles’ own AFI FEST Film Festival starts to slowly wind down, I’m reminded of how much fun film festivals are to attend and cover. I am also reminded of how time-consuming and exhausting they can be – and that’s an observation I’ve made during a festival that allows me to trot around my own hometown and sleep in my own bed every night. Imagine what I’ll say on day six of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. In any case, the rise of Internet-based streaming options is slowly changing the way film professionals check out films, either for review, programming, or acquisition, and that’s now starting to bleed over to the festival world. While I always prefer seeing a film in a theater with an audience, on occasion, an online streaming option is the only way to go, and there’s something to be said for watching a film in your own living room (mainly, something about pajamas). To that end, newish website Festival Scope is currently offering on-demand festival programming that includes screeners for a number of big film festivals. Festival Scope does not offer all the films of a festival, and doesn’t seem interested in doing so, as part of the mission of the site is to spark awareness and interest in film festivals themselves. Tossing up every selection online isn’t just impossible for a myriad of reasons, it also doesn’t serve the idea that actually experiencing a film festival firsthand is valuable. But Festival Scope has a [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

The middle class in China is a juggernaut that has been growing steadily for at least the past decade. It was only a matter of time before a foreign-sales-obsessed studio world moved in to deliver the content that the hungry giant has an appetite for. Warner Bros. is officially the first to break into the People’s Republic of China to offer their films On Demand through television. According to a press release, Warner Bros. will be partnering with You On Demand (complete with its creepy, winky-face logo) to provide Pay-Per-View movies to an estimated potential 200 million households. The films become available this summer, and by the end of the season, You On Demand anticipates their service will be in 3 million households – the equivalent of some of the top cable providers here in the US. This is a large opportunity for the studio financially, of course, but what’s more fascinating is the door it leaves open for a US-based studio to start producing movies specifically for a foreign market. Hollywood is already highly aware of the global market and have catered more and more to foreign markets by making tentpole films more generic (and thus easy to digest in any culture or language), but with a direct line into the homes of the Chinese people, Warner Bros. might see an incentive to bypass American audiences altogether and start making a few movies every year specifically aimed at China. That’s just speculation, but it doesn’t seem too far fetched. [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Every week, Landon Palmer and Cole Abaius log on to their favorite chat client of 1996 as MichaelBayFan2938 and Sharktopus11 in order to discuss some topical topic of interest. Not every movie is on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime, but we’re heading down a path that could change the way we watch and own movies. As Robert Lloyd points out at the LA Times, we’ve already got a shifting library of movies at our fingertips, and that might alter our viewing habits. We don’t have to drive to the rental store anymore (for the most part), but we also don’t have to toss down money every single time we make a decision to watch a movie. We can watch as much as we want. Isn’t that a good thing? Check out what we had to say and let us know what you think.

Some evil, real world monsters want to take FEARNet away from you. But will we let them? Oh hells naw!

Hello, I’m a Mac. And I’m currently watching the first season of 30 Rock, despite the fact that I do not own it on DVD. How is this happening? No, not on Hulu. Its Netflix’s Watch Now feature — on a Mac.