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What happened? To begin with, the titans of the VOD realm loom larger than they used to: Netflix and Amazon now have the means to make and acquire movies of real consequence, and the breadth of customer base to bestow them an audience. Over the last several months, Netflix alone has released a staggering volume of world-class cinema directly to its platform: madcap animal-rights parableOkja, stark historical dramaMudbound, urbane intellectual comedyThe Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected). Each of these films premiered at international festivals to enthusiastic acclaim. Each of these films will take its place on year-end best-of lists and earn bevies of awards. And yet not one of these films screened in a movie theatre in Canada. Some of the year’s most celebrated motion pictures: available exclusively on your TV or laptop at home. This is a far cry, is it not, from the time, not so long ago, when “direct to TV” carried the irredeemable stink of disaster?

At the same time, it remains as difficult as ever for filmmakers and the distributors who adventurously represent them to find willing homes for work that falls outside the strict mainstream. Toronto-based director Daniel Warth’s rapturously lauded new indie Dim the Fluorescents was picked up earlier this year by FilmsWeLike, the local distributor perhaps most responsible for furnishing the country’s arthouses with alternative cinema — but Warth and the company ultimately parted ways after a release could not be secured. (The film currently has an extended run at the Carlton Cinema.) A similar fate befell Dustin Guy Defa’s marvellous comedyPerson to Person, one of the year’s best American films, which skipped theatres and “opened” on iTunes this fall. Not for lack of effort (and distributors such as FilmsWeLike ought to be given credit for trying), it can sometimes seem impossible to get even great movies onto the big screen.