Tugg is an amazing new web-platform that enables individuals to choose the films that play in local theaters and create theatrical events. They have just celebrated their first anniversary and are announcing several milestones including the robust growth of its film library and an enhanced website with new features for its nationwide network of event promoters.

Tugg’s library now consists of over 1,100 films from major studios, specialty distributors and independent filmmakers, and boasts both classic and contemporary titles that span the history of film, from silent era selections like The General to newly anointed classics like The Princess Bride, as well as recent Oscar-nominees like Beasts of the Southern Wild. These films are available to screen through Tugg’s network of exhibitor partners.

Tugg’s enhanced website has launched as well, with features that provide increased communication between event promoters and attendees, as well as analytic tools for hosts to better understand their influence on their community. These features improve a promoter’s ability to successfully share films with audiences across the country.

Filmmakers, distributors and moviegoers have utilized Tugg’s platform for harnessing demand on a hyper-local level. In the past year, 180 different films have been screened in over 300 different cities in 48 states.

Independent filmmakers have embraced Tugg to help bridge the gap between filmmakers and fans, widening the theatrical reach of their films through audience empowerment. Filmmakers are increasingly creating fan-driven communities around their work, and through Tugg they’re able to further occupy the role of both artist and entrepreneur by engaging fans directly.

Honor Flight, a documentary film about World War II veterans, is one of Tugg’s early success stories.  With a limited run in eight cities, the filmmakers turned to Tugg where they have generated screenings in over 60 additional cities and counting, making up 56% of their total theatrical box office. “By utilizing Tugg, audiences from around the country are coming together to watch our film as it is meant to been seen – a shared experience among moviegoers in the theater. The film distribution landscape is changing and Tugg is at the forefront of technology in this field,” said director Dan Hayes.

Somewhere Between director Linda Knowlton commented on her success with the platform, “as a smaller film, our limited distribution was wonderfully augmented by Tugg’s ability to bring the film to mainstream theaters in cities and towns that were out of our reach. I also love Tugg for empowering audiences.  The excited emails and FB posts and messages I received before and after each Tugg screening showed me just how powerful these screenings were – for audiences, the organizer, and the community.”

Last year’s SXSW hits Iron Sky and Fat Kid Rules the World are great examples of how savvy, entrepreneurial-minded filmmakers are able to build off the community engagement fostered during the crowd-funding phase of their films, and translate it into a fan-driven theatrical release.  The passionate fan-base that contributed funds to the production of these films subsequently helped fuel successful Tugg screenings across the country.

At the audience level, local influencers have embraced the opportunity to use Tugg to curate films for their communities. Randy Berler, a Tugg promoter in Torrance, CA brought new independent and foreign films to his art house-starved community, continually playing to multiple sold out houses for screenings of films like Headhunters, Holy Motors, and Rust and Bone.  Marc Ferman, a blogger in Miami, FL, has curated a steady stream of modern Hollywood hits, bringing beloved films back to the big screen like The Goonies, Robocop and a recent double feature of Mike Judge’s Office Space and Idiocracy.

“Over the past year, we’ve seen an immense range of local influencers using Tugg to share films they care about with their communities. From cinephiles to social activists, church pastors to police departments, people from all walks of life have found in Tugg a platform that empowers them to create theatrical experiences around the films that matter to them. We’re excited to build on the success of this past year and expand our theatricalofferings in 2013,” said Tugg co-founders Nicolas Gonda and Pablo Gonzalez.

Browse Tugg’s library of 1,110+ films and request to bring a favorite title to your city at www.tugg.com/titles. To learn more about how Tugg works, visit the “How To” page at www.tugg.com/howtuggworks