The Hollywood Reporter has rolled out a mobile application that will feature coverage from upcoming festivals including Sundance and Cannes.

The Festivals mobile app is available on iPhone and iPad devices. Through the app, consumers can browse coverage that centers around the Toronto International Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.

?We want our Festivals app to be the ultimate companion for our readers attending film festivals across the globe,? said John N. Marchesini, senior product manager at The Hollywood Reporter.

?By consolidating our film festival coverage into one app, we have the opportunity to provide targeted content to specific festival audiences,? he said. ?We expect that this will allow us to scale our mobile festival-going audience, which will open up new monetization opportunities for advertisers interested in reaching festival attendees and movie enthusiasts.  

?In addition, we will soon provide the ability for our readers to use our app to plan their entire festival schedule, including screenings and parties.?

The Hollywood Reporter tapped Genwi to power its new mobile app.

Exclusive coverage
Via the app, users can check out festival screening guides and browse exclusive festival news coverage.

Additionally, users can view show dailies, movie reviews and slideshows of celebrities on the red carpet.

The Festivals app also features video trailers and interviews that help users stay up-to-date on the latest content.

Instead of focusing on one festival, The Hollywood Reporter decided to marry content from each global film festival into one interactive experience.

An app such as this is a great way for The Hollywood Reporter to drive readership.

In addition, the company believes that the new app will create a new revenue channel for advertisers to reach movie fans.

?When The Hollywood Reporter relaunched in 2010 as a weekly magazine, we made a commitment to our readers that we would provide a platform agnostic approach to delivering digital content,? Mr. Marchesini said. 

?Many of our readers own more than one device, so we?re looking to serve our growing number of multiplatform digital consumers,? he said. ?We?ve seen unprecedented growth in the mobile space over the past year and over 25 percent of our site traffic arrives from mobile devices.?  

Driving engagement
The Hollywood Reporter is no stranger to mobile.

Earlier this year, the company let entertainment buffs stay up-to-date on news from the Cannes Film Festival on their tablets.

The Hollywood Reporter Cannes Film Festival iPad application was the third iOS app from the publisher to launch this year, and the company claimed that it was seeing more than 25 percent of Web traffic coming from mobile devices (see story).

?The strategic goal of the app is to create the go-to app for all major film festivals covered by The Hollywood Reporter,? said PJ Gurumohan, cofounder/CEO of Genwi, Los Altos, CA.

?By consolidating all festival coverage in one app, the audience for the app builds during each festival, opening up new monetization opportunities for advertisers interested in reaching festival attendees and hard core movie fans,? he said.

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York