Distributor Umbrella Entertainment will launch AVOD platform Brollie next week, with a focus on Australian film and TV.
The free service will launch with more than 300 titles, including Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook and Gregor Jordan’s Two Hands, alongside rare and cult classics such as John Rapsey’s Sweat, Alan White’s Erskineville Kings and Kimble Rendall’s Cut.
Brollie will have a section for Indigenous Australia, including a collection of films starring David Gulpilil, such as Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout, Henri Safran’s Storm Boy and Peter Weir’s The Last Wave.
Subscribers will be invited to be part of the Brollie Film Club, with the streamer’s in-house team to handpick the best of the catalogue twice a month. Special features, usually confined to DVD extras, will also be available to watch with these collections.
Umbrella Entertainment general manager and head of sales and acquisition Ari Harrison promised the catalogue would be full of Aussie classics that are unavailable on other platforms.
“We know these iconic films and TV shows can find new and old audiences instead of gathering dust on the shelf. Brollie is about helping Aussies to access this world-class storytelling easily and, most importantly, for free so everyone can enjoy our epic screen legacy,” he said.
Brollie will launch on November 23, alongside a new podcast called Sunburnt Screens: The Australian Cinema Odyssey, hosted by Alexei Toliopoulos. It fill feature interviews with directors such as Rolf de Heer, Gillian Armstrong, The Spierig Brothers and Natalie Erika James.
Viewers will be able to access Brollie through the Apple and Google Play Store, through Apple TV, Google TV and Android TV, through Chromecast with Google TV and on browser at www.brollie.com.au