Reading, PA (The Hollywood Times) November 3, 2026 — Jared Hoffa spent more than two decades in Chicago television, created a video game show while working at ABC, and watched a Sony offer worth $2 million a year collapse when his sales agent decided the commission was too low. Now the Berks County native is back in Reading with a platform built so that never happens to another filmmaker. As co-founder and COO of Pixquid, Hoffa will lead two workshops at ReadingFilmFEST, November 6th through the 8th, where Pixquid is a sponsor. The Hollywood Times is a media partner there as well.
“Pixquid is a streaming platform, but it’s mostly a marketplace on top of it,” Hoffa told The Hollywood Times. The platform connects filmmakers directly to distributors and gives them ways to earn, with no agents or gatekeepers in between. It is ad-free and non-exclusive, so a film can live on Pixquid and elsewhere, and filmmakers keep ownership of their work. Revenue comes through pay-per-view screenings, and a distributor can still buy a film outright. The result treats the filmmaker as a partner instead of a pawn.
The origin story is the heart of it. Hoffa’s game show went from a passion project to a shopping trip through Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon at the height of the streaming wars, and it landed at Sony. Then his agent, who had A-list and B-list talent on his roster and treated Hoffa as a nobody, killed the deal. “I’ve spent years creating the show using my own money. This is my moment, and one person stops it,” he said. Years later, when he met Pixquid co-founder Rujanee Mahakanjana, who had launched the streaming service and was struggling to build the marketplace, he knew what to offer. He understood “how one gatekeeper can shut everyone down.” Together they rebuilt the platform from the ground up as Pixquid 3.0.
Coming back to Reading closes a loop. Hoffa left for Chicago after one year at college, and the last time he screened here was his documentary All We Had at the Boscov Theatre at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in 2008, when he doesn’t think the Reading Film Office even had an office. He returned to help family and noticed a new energy in the local arts scene. He has just opened a Pixquid office on Penn Street. ReadingFilmFEST winners will be featured at the top of Pixquid and receive free memberships, part of a push to support filmmakers after the festival circuit ends. For any filmmaker leaving the festival Sunday with a finished film, Hoffa’s advice: Go to pixquid.com, click upload, and fill out the film’s details. Pixquid checks the quality and approves it, and then the real work starts.
“You have to stop looking at it as a film and look at it as a product,” he said. “How are you gonna get that product on a shelf?” Pixquid gives each film one home with the highest quality, no ads, the filmmaker’s bio, and social links, so a single link can go to distributors, friends, or investors. He says Pixquid has also hired a consultant who formerly led sales at Microsoft and Amazon Prime to bring buyers to the platform.
Hoffa’s two workshops are both at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts. “AI: Threat or Tool” runs Friday, November 6 at 3:00 PM. Hoffa has watched the divide between AI filmmakers and traditional filmmakers play out on both coasts, and he is keeping his own verdict under wraps. His message is that knowledge comes first. “Even if you don’t wanna use them, you should understand what they are,” he said. “Exploring New Opportunities for Distribution” follows Saturday, November 7 at 10:30 AM, a tactical session on bypassing gatekeepers and monetizing festival selections.
Asked about the vertical video boom, Hoffa pointed to Quibi, which tried to force the format too early. Pixquid supports both orientations, and his advice is to let the story decide. “Don’t do it just because you think it’s trending,” he said. “Trends change real quick.” It is the same philosophy that drives the whole platform, and Hoffa is confident it is working. At a recent Pixquid awards event in Chicago, he told the crowd, “A year ago we said that we would break the system, and we have.”
For the full ReadingFilmFEST schedule and tickets, visit readingfilmfest.com/program.
