About matte
Filmmakers have no home.
matte is fixing that.
The problem
YouTube buries short film.
The algorithm rewards retention, not craft. Your work gets filed next to vlogs. The audience that would love it never finds it.
Vimeo lost the plot.
Vimeo Staff Picks was where filmmakers got seen. Then Vimeo pivoted to enterprise hosting. There is no modern equivalent.
The industry pays €0.003 per view.
At €0.003 per stream, a film needs 300,000 plays to earn €900. Most shorts never get close. Prestige or poverty — there has been nothing in between.
What we built
matte is a curated platform for short fiction, music video, animation, and documentary craft. Every film chosen by hand — by a person. No free tier. No ads. You subscribe, you watch, the filmmaker gets paid.
The money
40%
to filmmakers — monthly
Your share is proportional to how many people watched your film that month. Roughly 20× what YouTube pays per view.
10%
to the filmmaker fund
When a filmmaker's crowdfunding hits 80%, they can apply for the gap. We also commission films directly.
100%
of direct tips
Tip a filmmaker after watching. We take nothing. Every cent reaches them, minus only the payment processor fee.
Where we are
matte is early. We're not inventing numbers.
The catalogue is small. The audience is forming. The people who join now decide what kind of audience matte has — and that shapes which films get made next.
Behind matte
A small team in Helsinki, working with curators around the world.
matte is built by filmmakers and people who love film. The platform is operated by matte Oy, a Finnish company in Helsinki. Every curator decision, payout calculation, and design choice is made by a person whose name you can find on this site.
Frequently asked questions
Membership
Watching
Submitting a film
Earnings & payments
Curation
The platform
A filmmaker makes something. You subscribe. They get paid.