Providing access to video can be challenging, especially when it comes to film. To clear the rights, to get hands on the material, to manage the licenses, different language versions and age ratings - all this needs to be solved before a film is shown to any kind of public. More often than not, public institutions do neither have the expertise, the personnel, the money or the experience to answer to this challenge. The solution suggested by AVA – Audio Visual Access is collaboration. Film festivals, public libraries and a technology company with a focus on Video on Demand work together to provide festival films to public libraries and cultural institutions across Europe. The festivals select the films, curate programs, clear the rights and provide the video files and the institutions provide the space, visibility and the audience. The technology company is providing the services and solutions: In AVA we are creating a platform that allows all the different partners to work together on rights management, access for the audience, cloud transcoding, VoD, authentication services etc. etc. Another aspect is worth mentioning: Money. Collaboration projects like AVA are proving very successful with funding institutions. AVA is being financed under the Audience Development call by the MEDIA program of the European Union. Another project run by the reelport GmbH on Virtual Reality with a similar consortium has been awarded funding by the H2020 program of the European Union, too. In the light of this success of AVA we strongly encourage partnerships between everybody dealing with digital video, science and other public institutions, content providers and tech – companies alike.