Pijama wants to bring more indie films to a global audience

Every year, countless independent films without distribution deals make their debuts on the festival circuit only to disappear into the ether before the general public has had a chance to see them. Pijama, a new VOD streaming service, is trying to change that.

Created by filmmakers (and brothers) Juan de Dio and Pablo Larraín — whose past work includes Spencer and Jackie — Pijama aims to give artists a new way to get their indie projects seen by much larger audiences without the help of traditional studios. For a flat $100 fee, Pijama will host, encode, and stream films on its platform for up to two years. Filmmakers will be able to choose how much to charge for their work, with rental pricing ranging between $3.99 and $9.99. And viewers will be able to access their rentals during a “72-hour viewing window over 30 days.”

In a statement about service, the Larraíns emphasized that they wanted to launch Pijama in order to democratize access to indie films and address the “traditional distribution barriers” that often keep projects from being seen by audiences who might not even know they exist.

“Eighty percent of films never get distribution, and we see a cultural crisis rooted in the end of physical media and the current logic of the market,” the brothers said. “We ask ourselves how audiences can see most of the films that played festivals like Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and Toronto last year when, in most cases, it simply isn’t possible.”

According to Pijama, 80 percent of the revenue generated from film sales will be paid directly to “producers, sales agents and distributors after transactional costs and applicable taxes.” On the service’s digital backend, it will also give filmmakers the ability to track viewing metrics and to design online marketing campaigns to maximize their exposure.

Pijama’s debut comes just a few weeks after the launch of Letterboxd’s Video Store, which also allows users to rent a curated selection of movies that might not be distributed by major studios. If they take off, this new breed of streaming platforms could be a major boon to the indie filmmaking space, and if you’re interested in giving Pijama a spin, you can download the app now for iOS, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Android.