The choice of European independent cinema

Estelle Bringer, Deputy General Manager of Le Meilleur du Cinéma/SOONER, tells us about her genuine passion for cinema!
 

What are the connections between SOONER and the Lumière film festival?

The Lumière film festival has established a simple yet powerful idea: heritage cinema isn’t just for specialists, but open to everyone, provided it’s presented with passion and shown in the best possible conditions. This is exactly the same philosophy that drives SOONER. To achieve this, we support our programming with original editorial content, including written, video and audio pieces, created in collaboration with journalists, experts and guests. Our partnership with Lumière shares this same goal of passing down cinema culture.

What is the editorial policy of your independent European streaming platform?

SOONER was launched in February of this year thanks to the merger of two pioneers of independent VOD in France, UniversCiné and FILMO. Our guiding principle is based on a clear commitment: quality not quantity, meaning curation and editorial direction over sheer volume; diversity in filmmaking and independent creation rather than standardization. In concrete terms, this involves a rigorous selection process, prioritizing contemporary auteur films, major classics and rare or previously unreleased works, while also exploring all genres of European and international cinema. We also seek to provide in-depth coverage through our media outlet Le Journal with articles, feature stories, interviews, podcasts, video content and contextual analysis. Heritage films comprise more than half of our film catalogue, with European works accounting for over 60% of that total, making SOONER one of the SVOD services with the richest selection of European heritage films. Subscription-based VOD has become the second most popular way to watch heritage films. According to the CNC’s annual statistics, the share of heritage films in SVOD consumption continues to rise, and this is particularly true on SOONER. This trend is even more significant given that our demographic is younger than the linear channels’ audiences; more than half of our users are between the ages of 18 and 34.

This is the inaugural year of the partnership between SOONER and the festival…

Rediscovering a film also means watching it through today’s lens, and we know to what extent our interpretive frameworks evolve! Every generation finds something new in it. Our role is to make these works visible across all platforms, to help viewers understand them and to let each audience find their own connection. It’s in this spirit that we’ve built our partnership with the Lumière film festival this year, to offer programming on SOONER that can extend and enhance the festival experience. For example, you can find a wide selection of restored films found in the “Lumière Classics” section over the past fifteen years: Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Ordet, Claude Chabrol’s La Cérémonie, René Clément’s Joy House and George A. Romero’s The Amusement Park.

Which films or directors are you looking forward to seeing at Lumière this year?

The works by the Coen brothers, of course! SOONER will have the honor of introducing a screening of O Brother, Where Art Thou? on October 16. We’re offering a special series on the platform so that our subscribers who aren’t attending the festival can also watch or rewatch Blood Simple, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Fargo and others from home.

The “Permanent History of Women Filmmakers” section is also a favorite of ours. SOONER is partnering with this initiative and will offer users the chance to rediscover the pioneers featured in previous editions on the platform: Kinuyo Tanaka, Ana Marisca, Mai Zetterling, Judit Elek and Anja Breien. We’re also greatly looking forward to the premiere screening of the restored version of Radu Mihaileanu’s film Train of Life. SOONER is a partner in this rerelease. The screening will be followed by a retrospective dedicated to the director on our platform, featuring Live and Become, The History of Love or The Concert, with a masterclass by the director, and in 2027, a 4K Blu-ray released by our company, Back Out. This exemplifies another aspect of our work, which is to facilitate the restoration of films and support their distribution on DVD, VOD and SVOD.