Cannes 2026. A world first.
Eleven days on the Croisette. One platform debut. One streaming partnership that did not exist in our industry before this month.
Marche du Film step and repeat, Cannes 2026
Here is the wrap.
TLDR
→Hiway debuted publicly at the Marche du Film, Cannes 2026.
→Six mediatech innovation firsts launched with the platform.
→David Orman closed the 16th International Film Finance Forum. The room broke into applause.
→Raindance Releasing announced. A streaming service that screens content without ingesting it.
→Two flagship channels live: Shambles and All The Rage by Kin London.
→Screener Rooms running daily on the Marche floor.
→New customers signed across festivals, distributors and rights holders.
→Press coverage including The Hollywood Reporter Day 6 cover.
→The next phase is already moving.
01 · THE WINSTON BAKER STAGE
Greenlight and Global
David Orman joined the closing panel of the 16th International Film Finance Forum on Friday 15 May. Greenlight & Global, on the new rules of independent film and direct-to-fan distribution.
The audience response was the moment of the week. When we explained what Hiway does and how it works, the room broke into applause.
Our thanks to Amy Baker, Katie Witkowski, Maria Soccor and the Winston Baker team for the platform, and to fellow panellists Laura Lewis, Tristen Tuckfield and Nick Vallelonga for the conversation.
02 · THE ANNOUNCEMENT
Raindance Releasing. A world first.
The headline of the festival. Raindance, the independent film festival founded by Elliot Grove with its global filmmaker community, partnered with Hiway to launch Raindance Releasing. A streaming service that receives and screens content without ever ingesting it.
The media never leaves the content owner’s library. No upload. No transcoding. No metadata transfer. The platform carries zero streaming costs because the stream always originates from the content owner’s Hiway account. The content owner stays in full control of their IP throughout, sets their own revenue split, and collects payments and analytics in real time.
Our thanks to Elliot Grove, David Martinez, Olly Hermon Taylor and Ed Hubbard, and the Raindance team for the trust and the partnership, and for an incredible Villa Party.
INDUSTRY FIRSTS
Six mediatech innovations in one launch
1.Zero streaming costs. The stream originates from the content owner’s Hiway account. No CDN bill. No hidden cost in platform margins.
2.Full IP control. Master files never leave the rights holder’s library. No duplicate uploads. No transcoding. No physical deliveries.
3.The rights holder sets the terms. Revenue split, analytics shared or not, customer data shared or not. Per content owner. Per partner. Per deal.
4.Real-time revenue, both sides. Platform and rights holders collect their share of every sale automatically and directly, in real time. No royalty reports 90 days late.
5.Two databases, one truth. Both sides collect viewing analytics and audience data in real time, simultaneously. Each builds its own database.
6.Launch in a day. A streaming platform stands up through Hiway in days, not quarters. Raindance can now invite its independent filmmaker community to onboard in minutes.
“Rights holders make the content. Platforms keep the audience, the data and the margin. The economics had to change. We built the infrastructure to give it back.”
DAVID ORMAN · CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, HIWAY
03 · THE FLOOR
Screener Rooms on the Marche
Hiway’s Screener Rooms ran daily on the Marche floor. Buyers, sales agents and festival programmers walked in, watched content from the rights holder’s own library on the spot, and walked out with the data trail to prove it. No file transfers. No watermark anxiety. No follow-up email chains. The product sold itself in the room.
04 · THE CHANNELS
New launches
Two flagship channels went live during Cannes.
→ Shambles by Rodini Films · shambles.onthehiway.com
→ All The Rage by Kin London · alltherage.onthehiway.com
New customer signings landed across festivals, distributors and archive rights holders. Names to follow as launches go public.
05 · THE COVERAGE
Press from Cannes
The Hollywood Reporter ran the Raindance Releasing story on its Day 6 Cannes cover. International film trade picked up across Variety, Deadline, Screen International and TBI Vision. The UK media business desks covered the founder angle. The full clip list is going up on the press page this week.
The Hollywood Reporter · Cannes Day 6 cover
06 · WHAT’S NEXT
The next eight weeks
Cannes momentum feeds directly into a series of launches over the next eight weeks. New festival partnerships. New distributor integrations. A second wave of channel launches from rights holders we met on the Croisette. Expect the next News from the Hiway before the end of June with the detail.
Thanks to every person who walked into a Screener Room, sat at a meeting, or pulled us aside at the villa. You made this Cannes.
ONE MORE THING
Hiway is not another streaming service.
It’s the infrastructure that lets every rights holder build their own.
It’s how rights holders market direct to their fans. Watch this space.
See you on the Croisette next year.