Sundance Institute executive director Keri Putnam said on Thursday [17] the self-distribution initiative has expanded to include six new supports.

The Bertha Foundation, BRITDOC, Cinereach, Film Independent, the Independent Filmmaker Project and the San Francisco Film Society will each select films that they have supported to receive access to digital distribution arrangements negotiated by Sundance Institute Artist Services.

The Institute will curate submitted films and work closely each organisation, the filmmakers, and exclusive aggregation partner Cinedigm – New Video to develop independent distribution strategies.

“Now more than ever filmmakers need to be creative and entrepreneurial in order to get their stories to audiences,” said Putnam. “Sundance Institute embraces cross-organisational collaboration in an effort to increase the collective impact on the field; it is in this spirit that we welcome the input of our colleagues to further help us shape the Artist Services programme.”

With the addition of new partners Tugg, Reelhouse, VHX, and Vimeo, Sundance Institute is expanding its suite of digital platforms and tools offered by Artist Services. All four will participate in the annual Artist Services Workshop on Jan 21 at the festival.

Current partners include ten digital retailers as well as Kickstarter , GoWatchIt, and Topspin Media.

Since the Artist Services programme launched in January 2011, more than $3.2m has been raised for nearly 100 Institute artists’ projects via Kickstarter and more than 40 films are now accessible by the public on a variety of platforms and storefronts.