The $1 million CineCoup Film Accelerator program has moved into its second phase, as a total of 90 indie film project teams now have 15 weeks to package their projects and build audiences using social media tools.

The inaugural program works by having film fans watch concept trailers and weekly filmmaker videos and casting their votes to help CineCoup ultimately select one project for the up to $1 million in financing and guaranteed release in Cineplex theatres next year. They can explore the projects at CineCoup.com by genre or province.

To promote its public rollout, CineCoup is running ads in 1,200 Cineplex theatres throughout March. The 30-second spots include clips from several projects that are in the running.

“I’m blown away by the filmmakers who have signed-up. I can’t wait to see how they develop their feature concepts and build fans. It’s going to be wild ride for all involved,” said J. Joly, the founder and CEO of Vancouver-based CineCoup, in a statement Thursday.

The film projects are from filmmakers the breadth of Canada, with teams ranging from emerging talent to experienced filmmakers and a handful of industry veterans, including award-winning director Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, Highway 61).

More on CineCoup: The following story appears in the Spring 2013 issue of Playback, which hits streets March 1.

Everyone’s talking about: CineCoup

Want to know if there’s a concentration of people in Saskatchewan who would gladly buy a theatre ticket to see a werewolf rom-com? Or whether Canadian filmgoers want to see another hockey story with heart? Thanks to CineCoup, we may soon be able to find out.

Company founder J. Joly’s disruptive film accelerator model, CineCoup, applies an analytics platform, created by his Vancouver-based digital agency dimeRocker/Overinteractive, to the studio filmmaking model. The program, officially launched at last December’s Whistler Film Festival, has put up to $1 million in production financing on the table, and a guaranteed theatrical release in Cineplex theatres for the film that comes out on top after a 15-week social media-driven engagement funnel (illustrated).

CineCoup is decidedly opposite to the traditional filmmaking model. By tapping into social media analytics and targeting the millennial generation in particular, it pinpoints and builds a critical, early fanbase for projects and discovers new talent.

Joly says it is also a means to get private investors to back Canadian filmmaking, a niche they have previously shied away because of its hit-or-miss nature.

“I thought, I’m going to bring a little bit of Palo Alto to Hollywood. We’re going to move it from this high-risk ‘waterfall’ model to this agile model of speed-to-market with minimum viable product – and then learn how to fail fast and fail hard and don’t be precious about things,” says Joly. What’s a “minimum viable product”? A two-minute trailer.

Starting Mar. 1, CineCoup opens the process up to the public, launching the trailers – which will also run on Cineplex screens nationally – online. The funnel will include weekly filmmaking and marketing challenges for the filmmaker teams to both package their projects and build audience interest to make it to the subsequent rounds.

CineCoup is targeting the June Banff World Media Festival for its final round, where Joly says the top five teams will pitch their projects to (and be grilled by) a jury and room full of industry professionals.

By Danielle Ng-See-Quan