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Published: 12:00am, 20 Feb 2011

With its interactive website and the online fund-raising programme Cinema Reloaded, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en) has always been one of the forerunners in promoting the use of the internet for filmmakers and cinephiles worldwide. It's logical, therefore, for the festival to play host to the launch of a new internet platform for artists dedicated to experimental films.

Unveiled at the Online Exposure panel at the brand-new LantarenVenster cineplex (www.lantarenvester.nl) in the redeveloped Kop van Zuid area in the south of the city, Instant Cinema (www.instantcinema.org) allows filmmakers to upload their films, and for cultural institutions or curators to program their own online showcases through individual 'channels'.

The website (described as 'The Time-based Art Forum' in a banner at the portal's main page) is the brainchild of the Los Angeles-based Dutch filmmaker Rene Daalder (projects.renedaalder.com) - whose career trajectory ranges from an apprenticeship with Russ Meyer and a career in music videos (Sex Pistols, Supertramp) to collaborations with Rem Koolhaas and the making of documentaries - and the EYE Film Institute Netherlands (www.eyefilm.nl). At the inauguration in Rotterdam on January 30, artists were invited to upload their digitised work at the terminals in the LantarenVenster foyer.

Lining up alongside Daalder at the panel is Wolfgang Knauff of Onlinefilm (www.onlinefilm.org), an Austrian portal which positions itself as a 'filmmaker-owned internet marketplace'. Artists can sell their work on the website, with buyers/visitors able to watch the film there or make encrypted copies through legal downloads.

At the moment, the site holds more than 1,000 films. What's most interesting is its emphasis on a 'digital rights fair trade' policy - with the project supported by the European Union's Media programme and mostly run by individual shareholders (it's possible to become one through the site), the price of films are set by the independent filmmakers themselves, with the money generated from the sales shared nearly 50-50 between the artists and Onlinefilm.

'Films are made to be seen' is the portal's motto, and the project has certainly facilitated a well-designed scheme to make that happen.