When, at the age of 27, Dafni Bechtsi, then a doctoral student in biology in Glasgow, Scotland, decided to leave everything behind to return to Athens, her bet seemed crazy. Create a streaming platform that can promote art-house cinema.
His father, a film distributor in Greece and owner of a chain of video clubs, had passed on his love of the seventh art to him. As an adult, Dafni Bechtsi visited European film festivals and realized the richness of independent cinema. When she returned to Athens, she noticed that only a tiny part of these works reached the public in her country. “I wanted to recommend films to my friends, but I didn’t know how they could get a chance to see them, at least legally”she explains in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. And this is how Cinobo was born, which is the acronym for « Cinema No Borders ».
On March 12, 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and at the start of confinement in Greece, the platform was launched with 300 films. Four years later, Dafni Bechtsi succeeded in her bet. Cinobo now lists more than 1,000 titles (award-winning films, classic masterpieces, Greek cinema, French comedies, thrillers, etc.) from 100 different countries, has tens of thousands of users, and employs 22 people. and recorded a turnover of 2.5 million euros in 2023, with a positive balance sheet for the company for the third year in a row.
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Cinobo’s ambition does not stop there. For some time now, the start-up has ventured into film distribution, organizing events and supporting arthouses in Athens. With a monthly subscription of 8.99 euros, subscribers can benefit from free tickets to go to Athens cinemas.
Outdoor
Since the economic crisis of 2008 and the brutal recession that followed, several theaters in the capital have in fact disappeared. More recently, the phenomenon of hypertourism and real estate speculation in the center of Athens also led to the closure of the historic Ideal cinema, transformed into a hotel. In March 2022, the Odéon Opéra also said goodbye to the general public. But Cinobo saved it by financing its reopening. From now on, the platform supervises the program and the operation of the room. In December 2023, it successfully reopened.
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In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, Ciné Paris, the city’s emblematic open-air cinema, with a view of the Acropolis, had to close its doors. With the help of Cinobo, it relaunched in May 2024. The season ended in October with, again, almost twice as many tickets sold as in its last operational year.
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