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Young entrepreneur returns to Cambridge to launch innovative film discovery platform

27 August 2014

The article at a glance

A Cambridge Judge Business School alumna will return to the city this week to launch an innovative new platform set to become …

Weerada SucharitkulA Cambridge Judge Business School alumna will return to the city this week to launch an innovative new platform set to become the go-to site for film discovery.

Weerada Sucharitkul will launch filmdoo.com at the Cambridge Film Festival. FilmDoo is an online website and social community devoted to helping people discover independent and international films.

FilmDoo provides personalised film recommendations with an editorial team helping to review and promote great, but obscure, films that seldom reach a mainstream audience. Weerada said: “FilmDoo is unique in that it is a community-driven film discovery platform aimed at enabling users to discover the best foreign and independent films which may have otherwise been overlooked by other more traditional video on demand platforms.”

Weerada got the idea while studying at Cambridge Judge for the MPhil in Management in 2006, recruiting Australian business partner William Page to help her realise her dream. This week, the pair will launch FilmDoo with a special screening of new film Supernova, which is having its UK premiere at the festival. William said: “Supernova is a Berlin Film Festival Award contender by an upcoming Dutch film maker, so it’s significant for a startup like ours to be able to acquire such a film and we’re thrilled to have it as our launch film.”

So how will FilmDoo change the landscape for lovers of film? Weerada explains: “The Filmdoo platform provides numerous ways for our users to get involved in film discovery. It is a fun, proactive and engaging way for people to enjoy finding out about great films they may have not normally have heard of. FilmDoo will make it faster, easier, more fun and interactive for users to discover and see their desired films, regardless of where the films are from and the languages they are in. The films are available on a pay-per-view basis and the platform is also available across multiple devices.”

Launching initially in the UK and Ireland, the FilmDoo platform is set to expand internationally, with Australia next on the horizon in early 2015.

Film is a long way from the economics/ international relations career Weerada had anticipated post Cambridge. She believes she caught something in the entrepreneurial air of the city:

I definitely caught the entrepreneurial bug here – there’s something in the air in Cambridge that brings out the entrepreneur in people. So many of my Cambridge contemporaries have gone down the startup route. It’s been a fantastic ride so far and I’m delighted to be returning to the city to launch the business.