Flix Premiere Close Up Magazine - November 2017

November 2017

FLIX PREMIERE Close-Up Delivering movies that have the power to create conversation

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NOW SHOWING “ENTIRELY FRESH...A TRIUMPHANT DEBUT” The Movie Gourmet

“GENUINE & RELEVANT” Variety

“PHENOMENAL” Cinequest Film Festival

a film by Ch ris Brown

Exclusively on flixpremiere.com

a CHRIS BROWN film starring SAVANNAH BAILEY HUNTER GILMORE KAI KELLERMAN SIENNA LAMPI NATASHA LOMBARDI JOE MCGEE ISAAC SANCHEZ and ABBY STWEART executive producers JEFF BAKER CORY BYTOF MARTIN WARNER and MARGARET WALLACE producers BRAD MARSHLAND JILL PIXLEY JONATHAN SANFORD associate producer LIZ KELLEY KALYANEE MAM sound editor ANDRE FENLEY production manager LIZ KELLEY consulting producer ROBERT HAWK written directed & edited by CHRIS BROWN © 2016 CB FILMS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Welcome Readers: The purpose of this magazine is to share with our movie-goers, the industry and our partners updates about what is happening at Flix Premiere each month. We aim to highlight and explore the upcoming month’s ďŹ lm premieres in each market, to announce new developments on our platform and to provide a CEO update about the exciting current and future plans at Flix Premiere.

Happy reading!

IN THIS ISSUE: November Premieres Snapshot

Co ng ra tu

lat io ns

Learn about our exclusive new premieres showing each week.

US November Premieres Snapshot - pg. 3

Few Opt ion s, All Bad

a N am e Sh e Ha s

UK November Premieres Snapshot - pg. 4

Sum me r of 8

Close Up: Premieres Feature Reviews A chance to immerse yourself in the wonderful stories premiering each week.

Some Beasts

Some Beasts - Frank Mosley, Lindsay Burdge, Heather Kafka - pg. 5 The Husband - Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Sarah Allen, August Diehl, Stephen McHattie - pg. 6 Quaker Oaths - Alex Dobrenko, Fede Rangel, Pete Dahlberg, Grant James, Juli Erickson - pg. 7 Summer of 8 - Carter Jenkins, Shelley Hennig, Matthew Shively, Natalie Hall, Michael Grant - pg. 8 BFFs - Tara Karsian, Andrea Grano, Sigrid Thornton, Patrick O'Connor, Jenny O'Hara, Larisa Oleynik - pg. 9 She Has a Name - Teresa Ting, Giovanni Mocibob, Will Yun Lee, Eugenia Yuan, Gil Bellows, Deborah Fennelly - pg. 10 Under The Blood Red Sun - Kyler Ki Sakamoto, Kalama Epstein, Chris Tashima, Dann Seki, Autumn Ogawa - pg. 11

CEO Corner CEO Martin Warner discusses the impact that great films can have on an audience - with profound stories creating conversation - pg. 12 and at times, even a movement.

Winte r

Clean Break

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US PREMIERES SNAPSHOT

Starring: Frank Mosley, Lindsay Burdge Heather Kafka

november 3, 2017 - 7pm EST

Starring: Alex Dobrenko, Fede Rangel, Pete Dahlberg, Grant James, Juli Erickson

november 4, 2017 - 7pm eST

Starring: Tara Karsian, Andrea Grano, Sigrid Thornton, Patrick O'Connor, Jenny O'Hara, Larisa Oleynik, Molly Hagan, Richard Moll

november 10, 2017 - 7pm eST

Starring: Teresa Ting, Giovanni Mocibob, Will Yun Lee, Eugenia Yuan, Gil Bellows, Deborah Fennelly, Vanessa Toh, Charlie Ruedpokanon, Holly Pillsbury

november 17, 2017 - 7pm eST

Starring: Kyler Ki Sakamoto, Kalama Epstein, Chris Tashima, Dann Seki, Autumn Ogawa

NOVEMBER 24, 2017 - 7pm EST

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UK PREMIERES SNAPSHOT

Starring: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Sarah Allen, August Diehl, Stephen McHattie

NOVEMBER 3, 2017 - 7pm GMT

Starring: Carter Jenkins, Shelley Hennig, Matthew Shively, Natalie Hall, Michael Grant, Bailey Noble, Nick Marini

NOVEMBER 4, 2017 - 7pm GMT

Starring: Alex Dobrenko, Fede Rangel, Pete Dahlberg, Grant James, Juli Erickson

NOVEMBER 10, 2017 - 7pm GMT

Starring: Frank Mosley, Lindsay Burdge Heather Kafka

NOVEMBER 11, 2017 - 7pm GMT

Starring: Tara Karsian, Andrea Grano, Sigrid Thornton, Patrick O'Connor, Jenny O'Hara, Larisa Oleynik, Molly Hagan, Richard Moll

NOVEMBER 18, 2017 - 7pm GMT

Starring: Teresa Ting, Giovanni Mocibob, Will Yun Lee, Eugenia Yuan, Gil Bellows, Deborah Fennelly, Vanessa Toh, Charlie Ruedpokanon, Holly Pillsbury

november 25, 2017 - 7pm gmT

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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review US Premiere NOVEMBER 3 - 7PM EST UK Premiere NOVEMBER 11 - 7PM GMT

Some Beasts

A must-see.

Chase Whale, Dallas Observer

E

ven in our hyper-connected age of smart phones, social media, and the glorification of the latest developments in technological innovation and urban development that accompany them, there remain those who would rather return to nature. Untethered to modernity’s devices, the contemporary Walt Whitman or Thoreau might consider joining an organic farming community, deep in the heart of Appalachia.

In Some Beasts, the protagonist, Sal (Frank Mosley), has done just that. Leaving a girlfriend and the latter’s daughter behind in Dallas, he now works as a caretaker for a number of small-scale local farms in southwest Virginia. We follow him through the backbreaking and slow work of cultivating the soil, clearing brush, and chopping trees to prepare the way for a sustainable farm community. We see the trajectory of his relationship with his girlfriend, Rene, and his reaction to the harsh realities of life off the grid and the discovery of a wild boy who has run away from his family.

Director Cameron Bruce Nelson brings his extensive study of cultural anthropology and ethnography to bear on the production, using friends, acquaintances, and non-actors from rural Appalachia to populate his film. The result is a portrayal of pastoral American life that evades sensationalism and adheres to a deliberate, minimalistic, and realist mode, all while conveying the intensity of nature.

A bittersweet tale occupying the margins of the in between, in between the dusk of unrealized, cast off dreams and the threshold of promise and new beginnings.

Kevin Rakestraw, Film Pulse

Some Beasts announces Nelson as a significant, uncompromising new voice in American independent cinema.

Graham Williamson, Vérité Film Magazine

In a style that reaches the pinnacle of rural American realism, Some Beasts familiarizes us with Sal’s daily routine while meticulously highlighting the growing distance between him and his old girlfriend, Rene, and Sal’s increasing ambivalence in the face of savage and lawless nature.

A masterpiece of organic imagery.

Rachel Gibson Shepherd, Truth on Cinema

It might be called a cinematic Hillbilly Elegy at a moment when both the social and cultural importance of rural American life is being reconsidered in the US. Frank Mosley delivers an award-winning performance as Sal. Mastering restraint and understatement in his delivery, he offers a performance as credible and realistic as the non-actors who surround him as his friends, co-workers, and peers. The cinematography, by Hutch, captures the full richness and landscape of the mountain setting that pervades every element of the narrative tension in the film.

Some Beasts is an earnest portrait of a corner of American society that has received little attention.

What is more, it is an artful and beautiful story about a man coming to terms with both nature and himself. Be sure not to miss it.

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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review UK Premiere NOVEMBER 3 - 7PM GMT

The Husband

Near-comic drama handles dark psychological material with a light touch.

John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

H

enry Andreas (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) leads what would be an ordinary life. He works in advertising, is married, and a recent father of a son. But he is the husband of a woman incarcerated for sleeping with a fourteen-year old boy – her Bruce McDonald’s dark comedic drama follows Henry through various stages of grief and trauma in the aftermath of his wife’s arrest, media-packed trial, and her impending release from prison. When we meet Henry, he is almost entirely numbed, juggling the demands of childcare, work, an unreliable automobile, and carceral visitation.

He seems to neither think nor feel anything about his unenviable situation, until constant pestering from his co-workers and a chance encounter with his wife’s schoolyard lover sends him into a frenzied hunt for answers.

The film withholds fixed answers until the very end, taking us on an emotional journey with Henry who is simultaneously sympathetically framed by the narrative and rendered insufferable by his compulsivity.

Even his surroundings, a busy highway, a sprawling museum, and a night of debauchery seem to conspire against him, and yet he persists in his pursuit.

The Husband is a fantastic achievement, a movie which mines the deep connections of family, relationships and the self only to come to the realization that there are no easy answers...

Marina Antunes, Quiet Earth

Bruce McDonald brings the mojo to #TIFF13 with the smart black dramedy The Husband. The film, directed by McDonald and written by star Maxwell McCabe-Lokos and producer Kelly Harms, is a bitingly funny study of masculinity.

Pat Mullen, Cinemablographer

After only 80 minutes, it’s hard to decide exactly what the filmmakers want to make you feel about Henry, and his wounded masculine pride, but they do make this Husband pretty hard to forget.

Ken Eisner, The Georgia Straight

The Husband keeps us guessing – will Henry ultimately pursue revenge on the boy, will he straighten himself out and abandon his self-destructive obsession with his “rival,” or will he achieve some kind of catharsis? And what will become of his relationship with his wife and the future of their son?

Screenplay writer Maxwell McCabe-Lokos shines as Henry. As an author-star, we have the impression that he carefully crafted the role to fit his strengths and abilities as an actor.

The pity he inspires at the film’s beginning is as intense as the alarm he causes when chasing his wife’s underage lover. What is more, he is utterly convincing as a man spiraling through different phases of denial, anger, obsession, and a possible catharsis. Sarah Allen compliments his performance as the enigmatic wife who presents as broken and vulnerable in real-life, and a femme-fatale in Henry’s hallucinations.

The Husband is a bold and original film whose story pushes the envelope further into the back of the human psyche than any Hollywood production dare go. Unafraid to contemplate the messy aftermath of such a troubling sexual encounter, Bruce McDonald takes viewers to new heights of desperation – and reveals it in all of its intensity, irony, and humanity.

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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review

Quaker Oaths

US Premiere NOVEMBER 4 - 7PM EST UK Premiere NOVEMBER 10 - 7PM GMT

A

fter their honeymoon, Joe (Alex Dobrenko) and Emily (Fede Rangel) begin to drift apart. Her desire to go to med school feels like a personal accusation of inadequacy to him, a sign that he will never be good enough for her. And she finds him to be closed off and uncommunicative. After five years of separation, Emily has a new man, and wants to file for divorce. There is only one thing standing in their way – they had a Quaker wedding.

Emily’s mother and father will only accept their divorce if they complete the Quaker tradition of asking each of their wedding guests to cross off their signature on their witness registry.

Since their family and friends are scattered across the US, Emily and Joe embark on a road trip from Austin, Texas, that will take them through the southwest to California.

Louisiana Kreutz writes and directs this family comedy of divorce. Quaker Oaths generates humorous situations when a young, modern couple, is forced to respect a set of old-fashioned traditions that subject their intimate lives to the scrutiny of others.

The result is a different take on the romantic comedy, one that begins where other romantic narratives end. Whether or not you are familiar with the customs of the Quakers, you will quickly be laughing at the absurdity of the plight of the young couple.

Writer/director Louisiana (Lucy) Kreutz delivers a delightful off-beat comedy with her first venture into feature films.

Ray Schillaci, The Movie Guys

Writer/director Louisiana Kreutz’s Quaker Oaths is a rare thing — a road-trip divorce comedy.

Elizabeth Stoddard, Cinapse

On this journey to undo their Quaker Oaths, they must endure a renewed proximity to one another, and, eventually, the company of Emily’s new boyfriend. But the task throws them into awkward situations. It forces the exposure of their personal lives to their friends and acquaintances, and they learn a lot of unexpected details themselves. Will they ever succeed in convincing every guest to sign off on their permanent separation? And what will they learn about themselves during the quest to do so?

Fede Rangel plays the effusive and optimistic Emily with an easygoing nonchalance. Alex Dobrenko offers a more reserved and socially introverted Joe. The two have a definite chemistry, that shines through in moments of panic and desperation. A tenderness forms between them that is recognizable as the kind that is experiencing the growing pangs of a separation.

Pete Dahlberg rounds out the cast as the eccentric and freewheeling new romantic interest of Emily, Mikey. The three make for an odd pairing, indeed, as they set out on the road to finish collecting signatures for the divorce.

In love and in separation, in sickness and in health, Quaker Oaths reminds us that the awkward closeness of family lasts forever.

Be sure not to miss out on the laughs on Flix Premiere this fall.

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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review

Summer of 8 F

ew periods of life convey the imminence of dramatic change – the twilight of one chapter and the dawn of another – like the summer following senior year of high school. A liminal time between adolescence and young adulthood, it has a natural cinematic quality as a time for remembrance and closure, a time for hopes, anxieties, and, also, of aspirations for the future.

Summer of 8 basks in the warmth and the tension of this transition for eight high school friends who are about to leave for college. The leader among them, Jesse (Carter Jenkins), has arranged for one final perfect day at their favorite beach near his mother’s Oceanside home. He is hoping to decide with his girlfriend, who is going to a different school, if they will stay together in a long-distance relationship or make a clean break. Everyone is wondering if Aiden will finally have the nerve to let Serena know how he truly feels about her.

The last frolic before real life starts.

Joe Bendel, J.B. Spins

Carter Jenkins makes for a confident and contemplative ring leader as Jesse. Concerned about the kind of legacy he is leaving both for his parents and his friends, he is also ready to celebrate what life has brought him so far.

Michael Grant and Bailey Noble as Aiden and Serena have a chemistry that is first flirtatious and tentative, and then electric. A brooding Nick Marini plays Bobby, who may have complicated feelings for his best friend Jesse.

UK Premiere NOVEMBER 4 - 7PM GMT

The film’s dialogue, which commemorates the time that the students have spent together – just like that which ponders what new things are on the horizon for them – has a sincere and authentic quality. Even viewers who did not grow up near a beach can relate to the kind of final gathering before college that the eight are having.

Summer of 8 is an enjoyable film that’s worth a watch.

Kevin, Pop Culturalist

That’s because Summer of 8 recreates a universal experience of a rite of passage, a shift from youth to the first stages of being an adult.

It does so with gorgeous cinematography that recreates a languid day at the beach that carries into a long night of revelry.

...you can almost sense Hughes’ spirit smiling at the ways the teen genre has grown.

Kilian Melloy, Edge Media

Some of the friends are apprehensive about moving away from the familiar routine of high school. Others are eager to escape it. But everyone must face the pressing matter of the unknown into which they are about to adventure.

...Ryan Schwartz celebrates their youth, beauty and mixed emotions over a daylong gathering at the beach.

Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

The entire cast is beach calendar-ready, but it also brings a significant amount of emotion and subtlety to the charged and heady days of adolescence.

Summer of 8 is a coming of age drama that celebrates life, friends, and the timeless warm season of youth. Be sure not to miss it.

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BFFs

Close Up: Premiere Feature Review US Premiere NOVEMBER 10 - 7PM EST UK Premiere NOVEMBER 18 - 7PM GMT

W

hen it’s time to celebrate Kat’s birthday her family and friends cannot stop themselves from reminding her that she is reaching middle age unmarried. In fact, her mother’s gift is a couples’ therapy retreat weekend called “Closer to Closeness,” which she offers with the idea that Kat will invite her most recent ex-boyfriend to attend.

Only Samantha, her best friend, sees how cringe-worthy the celebration has become in its fixation on marriage, and the two BFFs escape to bemoan the tediousness of relatives over some hard liquor. During the course of their libations Samantha comes up with a solution to the unseemly birthday present – she can go together with Kat as a couple on the retreat! They both have been needing a vacation anyways, and what could be more entertaining than hanging out with the kind of people who would attend group therapy?

...with its light infusion of slapstick coupled to a steady and authentic exploration of sexual fluidity, it’s still decades ahead of many of the tragically duplicable creations in the genre...

Justin Goodman, Red Carpet Crash

...delivered with a light touch and sharp comic timing.

Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

Entertaining it is, indeed, when the two venture out to the new-age compound designed to rekindle and reignite romance. From group sharing and “cluck therapy,” to obstacle course challenges, the pair quickly realize they have gotten themselves in too deep as they pretend to be a couple. In their discomfort, they start to consider the possibility that some unexplored feelings exist between them. The result is an unexpected and original re-imagining of friendship and love.

Writer-stars and real-life BFFs Andrea Grano (as Samantha) and Tara Karsian (as Kat) have an incredible wit and deadpan delivery in the most absurd of situations. The authenticity of their friendship and familiarity with one another shines through their performance.

Grano and Karsian are surrounded by a cast of familiar faces and practiced comedians, who create a hilarious but credible atmosphere for the couples’ retreat. From a gay couple struggling with trust issues, to a forever-young and carefree husband exasperating his wife, the retreat pits a room of complete strangers together in the most messy and personal aspects of their lives.

BFFs balances comedy and the absurd with moments of heartfelt contemplation about the extent and depth of friendship, the nature of romance, and the character of the couple as a social ideal. The result is a smart comedy with a mature sense of humor and a lot of heart. Be sure to share BFFs with your own favorite friend this fall on Flix Premiere.

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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review

She Has a Name

US Premiere NOVEMBER 17 - 7PM EST UK Premiere NOVEMBER 25 - 7PM GMT

A

dolescence is a time for exploring the world around us, for developing our curiosity with boundless energy in recreation and in study. But for too many young people – more than our imaginations want to allow – these prime years of youth are consumed by the nightmare of human sex trafficking.

She Has a Name is a dramatic action film that takes on the widely-known but inadequately addressed problem of human trafficking. Although its plot develops in Thailand, the film distinctively frames the issue as an international problem – one for which people of all nations are responsible.

And this global approach to the topic is appropriately reflected in the film by the diverse nationalities of its cast and crew, as well as its exquisite location shooting in Bangkok.

When I saw [She Has A Name] … I was really moved. One of the best films I have ever seen, and I don’t say that lightly.

Michael Dawe, Author and Historian

She Has a Name marks a cinematic triumph.

Red Deer Express

The immense gravity of the issue of the enslavement and trade of humans for sex work is presented through the lens of a narrative about a specific pair of its victims and the government agents who are attempting to liberate them.

...a riveting, fast-paced political thriller.

Eric Volmers, Calgary Herald

She Has a Name follows Jason (Giovanni Macibob), an undercover State Department agent, as he befriends and gradually attempts to free the unfortunately-branded “Number 18.” Only fifteen years old, she cautiously agrees to help him build a legal case against her pimp and his protectors, after multiple reassurances and persuasion.

But the deeper Jason dives into her world, the clearer it becomes that powerful global actors and forces are supporting and sustaining this heinous trade. Will he be able to intervene with his superiors in time to save “18”? And will they be able to bring those who would abuse and enslave her to justice?

Brothers Daniel, Matthew and Andrew Kooman bring the latter’s award-winning play, She Has a Name, to life in the cinema. The team has a pronounced commitment to attracting global awareness to the critical problem of human trafficking through compelling film, with gripping narrative and visuals.

Their assembled cast brings insight and depth to both the pain of the victims of this phenomenon, and the psychological turmoil of their would-be rescuers, as they wage a battle of epic proportions.

The intimate connection formed between viewers and the characters of She Has a Name makes it a drama that gives life and a personal face to a population that is usually discussed only in terms of statistics. Extend your knowledge about our world and make sure to catch the premiere of this riveting drama later this month.

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Under The Blood-Red Sun

Close Up: Premiere Feature Review US Premiere NOVEMBER 24 - 7PM EST

T

he attack on Pearl Harbor has been brought to life in cinema through several epic films, recounted from the perspective of the national injury suffered by the US and its reverberations in international geopolitics and world-war. Few motion pictures, however, or works of art in general for that matter, have broached the subject of the consequences of the conflict for Japanese Americans living in US territories. During a time of renewed nationalistic currents throughout the global West, the story of their experiences in internment camps during this moment of history is more critical than ever.

Under the Blood-Red Sun ends up a surprisingly impressive movie which draws the audience in to the life of young Tomi and covering what it was like for him prior and post Pearl Harbour as a Japanese American.

The Movie Scene

I found the viewing of this film entertaining, engaging and enlightening.

Under the Blood-Red Sun introduces us to Tomikazu, “Tomi” Nakaji, US citizen and resident of Oahu, Hawaii. A typical boy, Tomi and his best friend, Billy Davis, play baseball in the fields, explore the wilderness near their houses, and go to school. Their lives will forever change, though, when the forces of escalating global tensions make a direct impact in their own back yard.

Under The Blood-Red Sun is a reminder of the sacrifices these families made to achieve the

Fay DeMeyer, New Hope Christian College An important and timely family drama, embedded in history, Under the Blood-Red Sun nevertheless has an optimistic and sunny outlook on a difficult subject that is conferred by a child’s perspective.

The divisions cast upon groups per their appearance, race, or national background are troubled by the communion of young friends, impervious to the prejudices and politics of adults.

Director Tim Savage and a diverse and international cast bring Tomi and Billy’s story to life, depicting how a gorgeous island paradise can be quickly lost.

The friendship between the two boys is particularly poignant, with Kyler Ki Sakamoto starring as Tomi and Kalama Epstein playing Billy.

comfortable world we live in today.

Kylie Yamauchi, Eagle Eye The real strength of Under the Blood-Red After the attack on Pearl Harbor, which they witness from their homes, the peaceful island life of Oahu converts to one charged with dangers and tension. A curfew is enacted and a blackout enforced in local homes, Tomi’s family comes under intense scrutiny from the FBI due to their Japanese heritage.

Ultimately, both his father and grandfather are sent to internment camps constructed to “neutralize” them as perceived threats. Will Tomi, his mother, and sister be reunited with their kin?

And how will they survive in the meanwhile?

Sun is its ability to teach by example and through the demonstration of cultural strength and sensitivity, rather than by lecturing.

Karleen C. Chinen, The Hawai’i Herald

While the children are at play, the dark forces of conflict gradually seep into and pervade even their world. Sakamoto wields a subtle sensitivity to this impending catastrophe, even while conveying the carefree nature of youth.

Under the Blood-Red Sun brings viewers back to a painful time in US national history and challenges them to reconsider it from a fresh and crucial lens.

Furthermore, it tells a universal story of friendship overcoming insurmountable obstacles.

Be sure not to miss it, only on Flix Premiere!

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CEO CORNER

SHOWING THE BEST OF CINEMA Welcome readers to this month's edition of our 'Close Up' magazine.

As you would have seen already, our inaugural Original Production, The Other Kids, premiered last month. The Other Kids was a bold film perfectly suited to our mission of democratizing cinema, transcending the constraints of genre.

Showing this film, which was directed by Chris Brown, was a proud moment for us as it continues to demonstrate our ambition to show where cinema meets life, showing the power of movies in today's world. If you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend it! !

I am excited to share more updates with you soon, including our next Original Production - stay tuned.

If you have any suggestions about how we can improve the Flix Premiere service or this magazine, please do let us know, and you can do so by sending you comments through to feedack@flixpremiere.com.

Happy reading.

With our Originals program now underway, our customers can continue to expect wonderfully curated movies both as Flix Premiere Exclusives and as Original Productions.

As we’ve often said, if a movie has the power to move you, create a conversation, or even a movement - it has likely had a profound effect on the audience.

Our goal is to continue to lead the way in stretching cinema, genre, and to be the single point of discovery for amazing movies - some that you may not have heard of..

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