Aflamnah and YallaTV Partner to Promote Crowdfunding and Online Distribution for Arab Filmmakers

DUBAI, UAE, April 10, 2013 (Press-News.org) It's the classic dilemma for independent Arab filmmakers: You have a great idea for a film, but no money to produce it. Or you've finished a great film, but you have no way to get it before an audience. Thanks to a new partnership between Aflamnah and YallaTV, Arab filmmakers will have more online tools and resources to find financial supporters and reach audiences in a dynamic new media environment.

Aflamnah, the Arab world's first crowd funding website and YallaTV, the leading video-on-demand website focusing on Arab filmmakers, have launched a comprehensive, joint effort to promote Arab filmmakers and their work.

Through this partnership, YallaTV will present Aflamnah-financed films on its website; provide financial and other promotional services to selected Aflamnah films; showcase Aflamnah pitching videos; profile Aflamnah producers on its "Focus on the Filmmaker" and VIP portals; and provide directory services. Aflamnah will provide YallaTV with selected content for online exhibition; invite selected YallaTV filmmakers to participate in crowdfunding on the Aflamnah website; advertise YallaTV on its website and marketing materials; and cross-promote YallaTV at Aflamnah-sponsored events.

"As YallaTV adds to its suite of services for Arab filmmakers, we recognize that the Arab film production community needs more innovative ways to finance films. We've been impressed with how fast and how well Aflamnah is meeting this need through internet-based crowdfunding" says Aaron Spring, director of marketing for YallaTV. "We're looking forward to supporting Aflamnah's crowd-funding option for YallaTV's filmmakers and helping more Arab directors, producers and writers get critical-stage financing."

"Aflamnah and YallaTV are dedicated to helping Arab filmmakers turn their big dreams into reality. Our partnership is a very good fit for us and the filmmakers who choose the Aflamnah platform to pitch their films," says Vida Rizq, principal founder of Aflamnah. "We're going to be able to reach out to more filmmakers, provide more resources and encourage and develop more talent in a region that has so many compelling stories to tell on film."

Crowdfunding - raising money online from the public in return for rewards to back creative projects or start-up businesses - has been very successful in the United States and Europe with over $2.8 billion raised in 2012 over 450 crowdfunding sites. Although it has only been active for less than a year, Aflamnah has already raised enough money to provide financial backing for over a dozen Arab-produced film titles. The most successful so far has been "When I Saw You", a film by Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir that received over $10,000 from Aflamnah supporters and won the best Arab Film Award at the 2012 Abu Dhabi Film Festival and the NETPAC award at the Berlinale Amongst others.

YallaTV will be attending the Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival in Doha on April 18-21, 2013.

ABOUT AFLAMNAH
Aflamnah is the first digital platform dedicated to crowdfunding in and for the Arab World and winner of the 2013 Digital Studio Award for Best Innovation of the Year. Aflamnah aims to help independent filmmakers, artists, geeks, students, innovators, thinkers and more to raise funds for their projects. Participants solicit funds within 30, 60 or 90 days by getting people excited enough to financially support their idea so that it can come to fruition.
Aflamnah is for anyone who has an idea for the Arab world - by Arabs or by individuals or organizations - who care about cultures, societies and people who reside in any of its countries. It is also for anybody anywhere in the world who would like to support these projects because they fall in love with an idea, they just want to give something back to the community, they are helping someone they know or they are supporting the project on their own initiative.

Please visit http://www.Aflamnah.com for detailed information.
Like us on http://www.facebook.com/aflamnah Follow us on http://www.twitter.com/aflamnah

YallaTV is the leading video-on-demand portal focusing on Arab filmmakers. Based in Dubai Media City, YallaTV delivers Arabic language content to audiences in the Middle East and North Africa and supports a growing online community of filmmakers and fans to promote the growth and professionalism of the Arab film industry.

See YallaTV online at http://www.yallatv.me.
Like us on http://www.facebook.com/yallatv.me
Follow us on http://www.twitter.com/yallatv

For more information

Contact: Aaron Spring, YallaTV director of marketing
aaron@yallatv.me
+971 4 361 6123

Contact: Vida Rizq, Aflamnah principal founder
vida@aflamnah.com
+971 50 81 33 781