Liz Rosenthal, founder and managing director of London-based Power to the Pixel, will deliver the Variety Cinema Militans Lecture 2009, in which she will articulate her views on ‘the position and viability of cinema in the present age’. The event will be held on Saturday September 26 at 18.00 hrs. in Ottone, Utrecht. The Variety Cinema Militans Lecture is held annually as part of the Holland Film Meeting, the international section of the Netherlands Film Festival.

The theme of the Variety Cinema Militans Lecture is lifted from ‘Cinema Militans’, an essay on the nature of film penned by Dutch film theoretician and critic Menno ter Braak in 1926.

Through digital innovation, a vastly increased number of people now have the power to create, distribute and engage with film. In a congested marketplace where competition for audiences is fragmented over multiple new platforms, games, online activities, TV and real life, the film industry must find new avenues to make films easily available and to engage with future audiences in more meaningful ways. The task now is how to reach and build audiences and use that unprecedented potential for exposure to create and extend the value of film stories. The key to a digital future resides in the relationship with audiences.

In her lecture – Tales from the Digital Frontier – Liz Rosenthal will give an overview of how a new generation of independent filmmakers and producers are using multiple platforms to tell these stories, engage with these audiences of millions and build new types of businesses. An early advocate and pioneer of digital distribution and filmmaking, Liz is a digital film and media expert. She advises international media companies, film financing organisations, filmmakers and film festivals about using cutting-edge distribution and production techniques and new film business models. Liz has recently been appointed as the Digital Distribution Strategy Advisor to the UK Film Council.

Founded in 2007, Power to the Pixel is a company dedicated to supporting film and wider media in its transition to a digital age.

Guest lecturers in previous years include directors Marc Rothemund, Marion Hänsel, István Szabó, Agnieszka Holland, Peter Greenaway, Mira Nair, Tom Tykwer and George Sluizer.

The Variety Cinema Militans Lecture will be published in the Variety.com Daily as well as in the Weekly Variety.

The Netherlands Film Festival will take place from September 23 till October 2, 2009. The Holland Film Meeting will be held from Thursday September 24 till Monday 28 September.