SECTION 1: The Basics

What is MUBI?

MUBI is an online destination to watch, discover, and discuss independent, international, and classic cinema. At its core, MUBI is an online movie theater that makes great films from around the world easily accessible through high quality video streaming. To keep our audience up to date on the most exciting things in film, our online magazine, The Daily Notebook, brings the latest cinema news, as well as articles, interviews and criticism. Finally, we unite film watching and film criticism with film discussion by allowing users to favorite, rate, review films and discuss all things movies in our forums.

What kind of films do you show?

We show the best of international cinema. This means a wide-ranging, but carefully selected group of films that fall into any number of categories, from foreign language, art-house, documentary and independent films, to shorts, experimental, and animated works.

In which countries does your service work?

Short answer: everywhere. We’re currently showing great films in every country in the world. (In fact, we even have films showing in Antarctica!) On any film page on the web site our technology will also automatically check to see if the title you want to view is available in your country.

However, since we license films by country, often a given movie won’t be showing in all countries. Getting the rights to show every film in our library in every country is one of our most important goals, but it is also a time consuming process. If a film is not playing in your country, you can find out where it is playing by visiting a film page and clicking the appropriate link under the film’s image. This does have it’s benefits—if you are vacationing abroad or on an international trip you can log into MUBI an enjoy the films available on MUBI in that country!

How much does an account on MUBI cost?

While most of the films themselves cost money—more on that below—an account on MUBI is absolutely free! This will give you access to the forums, ratings, reviews, all of our free films, and a profile of your own. To sign up, just click here and follow the steps.

Can I watch your films on my TV?

Absolutely. The resolution of our movies are high enough for you to enjoy them on your TV. There are a few ways to do so:

• As of Fall 2010, we will be launching our service on the Sony PlayStation 3 across 18 countries! Anyone in those countries with a PS3 will be able to watch our films directly on their TV through our PlayStation application.
• We’ve also partnered with Boxee, a service that allows you to link your computer to you TV. They’ll also be launching their own set-top box, called the Boxee Box, in November 2010. If you’re interested, you can find out more at Boxee’s website.
• And of course, there’s the "old-fashioned way": connecting your computer to your television using a PC-to-TV cable. With the right cord, you can use your television as a monitor, which will allow you to watch internet video on a real TV. Confused? So were we the first time we did it. Please check out our support community if you have any questions.

Is MUBI only about showing films?

No way. MUBI serves as a one-stop global meeting place for cinema culture. That means we let users watch films and trailers, read articles and news about international film, discuss with us and each other on our forums, and write their own reviews of films, all on our site.

SECTION 2: The Network

I’m new to the site, what’s all this about a profile and following and followers?

MUBI is a social network for cinephiles. Because film lovers are spread across the globe and each one has their own idiosyncratic access to movies, we’ve given our online movie theater the social tools to help connect people to the movies they love and to the people who love them. What does this mean? It means it’s easy to share your film activity with your friends, as well discover new things about the world of cinema. We encourage you to fill out your profile with all that you love about film and keep an eye out around the site for others whose tastes and opinions on film are interesting to you.

I just created a new account. Why is my profile picture a penguin?

He's cute, we know, but what we really want you to do is customize your own profile. If you see penguins around the site, it means the user hasn't uploaded their own image to their profile.

I’m new to the site and am not following anyone yet. What do I do?

No problem! MUBI is full of friendly, movie-loving people. Take a look around our forums and our online magazine The Daily Notebook to find some of them. Better yet, invite your friends or search our community for people you might know.

I notice that some people have done really cool and stylish things with their forum posts and profiles—like formatting text, posting images, and embedding videos. How do I do that too?

No worries at all, and it’s actually very easy!

For images and text, the best way is to use a programming language called Textile, which provides simple text commands to format your text, create a link, or even post a picture. An excellent resource for using Textile can be found here. If you’re still unsure how to use it, check out our support community.

Video is a little trickier, but the good news is that sites like YouTube and Vimeo have you covered. If you go to YouTube, there should be a small button under each video labeled "Embed." If you click on it, it will give you the complete embedding code in HTML. Just copy the code and paste it where you want the video to show up, and you’re good to go.

These can be used in both your profile and in forum posts. Those are the basic tools, and there’s lots of room for creativity—just browse around some of our users’ profiles, and we look forward to seeing what you come up with!

SECTION 3: Watching Films

Okay, I’d like to watch a film. What are the payment options?

There are two payment options: pay-per-view and subscription.

Pay-per-view is ideal to watch movies on a film-by-film basis. You can purchase credit to watch films on the account page. Credit does not expire (we hate that) and can be used to watch films at your leisure.

Subscription is ideal if you want to watch as many movies as you want each month. The subscription offers unlimited access to all films that are playing in your area...when you scroll through our library, it’ll be like the price tag in the corner doesn’t matter! The subscription carries over from month to month automatically, but you may cancel it at any time.

What kind of Video-on-Demand service is MUBI?

We offer films to stream for 7 day periods through pay-per-view purchasing or monthly subscription. When you rent a film on MUBI, you have 7 days to start it, stop it, rewatch it, watch it a dozen times, and otherwise view at your own pace and style.

What are the system requirements to watch films on MUBI?

Straight from our lead developer, the general system requirements are:

• A broadband Internet connection
• At least 2 GB RAM
• At least 2 Ghz processing power
• An up-to-date version of Flash. (If you don't have one, you can download it for free here

In addition, we are now offering MUBI through Sony’s PlayStation 3 in 18 countries around the world. The system requirement for that application is:

• A broadband Internet connection
• A PlayStation 3

What countries is your PlayStation 3 service available in?

Currently, MUBI is offered on the PS3 in: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom—with more countries on the way.

Can I get a "test drive" to see how the streams run on my computer?

Absolutely. The best way would be to try one of our free films. These films are available free of charge for anyone who has an account on MUBI (which is also free). Just click "Watch Film", and you’ll get a good idea of how our films will look on your computer.

How do you handle credit card information?

All credit card transactions are completed by Authorize.net, a reputable provider. Once your credit card has been authorized, we immediately delete all your payment information from our servers. Your billing information is transmitted using a secure Internet connection (SSL), certified by GeoTrust. We’re a friendly bunch, and we want to make you happy, so we’re working hard to make sure you have a safe shopping experience.

I’ve been browsing through the library looking for a film to watch, and it doesn’t look like many are available in my area. Why does it seem like there are so few? Where are the films I can see?

Since we’re a film database as well as an online cinema, we aim to list every movie ever made—regardless of whether or not it’s playing on our site—for the community to review and discuss. So the number of films in our database will be in the tens of thousands (and counting), even if the number playing in any given country is less than that.

Regarding which films are available, there are rights and licensing issues involved. Availability varies from time to time and place to place, and there’s no one area where all our films are playing. But we aim to have a slate of excellent films playing anywhere at any time. You can see the full list of films available in your area at mubi.com/watch—and no matter where you are, we can guarantee that many of our favorites are there.

When will more films be added?

In short: all the time! Expanding the library—masterpiece by masterpiece, undiscovered gem by undiscovered gem—is the content department’s mission. Our selection is always growing all around the world, and we don’t expect to slow down.

Can I tell what subtitles the film will have?

Yes, just go to the page of any film available to watch in your country. The subtitle language will be listed in the top right corner, right under the film’s spoken language.

How can I change the subtitle language of a film?

Currently, the subtitles of a film are fixed by territory, so there is actually no way to disable or switch them—at least not at the moment.

However, adding more subtitle options, so people can choose their subtitles (or even turn them off completely), is a big part of our dream for MUBI. This is a bit complicated, not just for technical reasons, but for licensing reasons as well, since different companies may own the rights to subtitles in different languages. But rest assured, building a completely versatile (and multilingual) movie-going experience is our goal for the future.