On March 13th, we kicked off our SXSW Shorts Week, highlighting selections from the festival exactly 7 days after its cancelation. Any thoughts we had about that unprecedented move being an isolated incident soon evaporated though. Many high profile events in the calendar quickly followed suit: REGARD (3/11 to 3/15) canceled their fest mid-stream while our team member Céline Roustan was on the ground, and Tribeca and Cannes announced postponements. 

For these Spring festivals, the timing has been especially cruel, as they’ve had to scramble against the clock to figure out how to adapt to the fast-moving reality on the ground. Cancel, or transform? Festivals, for all their glitz and glamor, are often fairly lean, non-profit organizations. While Cannes will be fine we expect, a straight cancelation could be a death sentence for smaller operations. We’re starting to see the first attempts to preserve aspects of these festivals right now, so let’s take a look at the various approaches being tried. This is an incomplete and evolving list, if you have news about actions your favorite festival is taking, leave a comment below!

Ticketed Events

• Aspen Shortsfest (3/31 – 4/5) – Arguably the most important shorts-specific film fest in the US (vying with Palm Springs), Aspen is going for virtual screenings—selling tickets for their individual programs which can be viewed from home on-demand at any time throughout the duration of the fest. Despite the international reach this allows, they will be capping the tickets at their normal theater capacity—about 500 tickets per screening. Partnering with Festival Scope for video delivery, tickets can be purchased now at Aspen Show Tix.

• Also considering a ticketed approach is the Cleveland International Film Festival (3/25 – 4/5), a very respected American regional fest that has carved out a niche as a tastemaker in shorts. Details are still being worked out.

Live-Streaming

• Ann Arbor Film Festival (3/24 – 3/29) – Going for a different approach to virtual, one that seeks to preserve the shared, in-the-moment quality of the festival experience, is this respected experimental festival which is currently live-streaming their entire program for free on Vimeo. We checked in on Wednesday to catch S/W alum Sean Buckelew’s latest and I’m definitely popping in for this Sunday’s “Best of Fest” screenings.

Geo-Restricted Video On Demand

• Some Fests are going digital without paywalls, working to make a selection of films available online. CPH:DOX (3/18 – 3/29), the esteemed Danish documentary festival is going that route. The festival has been extended thru 4/5 and has made an impressive 140+ films available. Restrictions apply however, as most of the viewing is restricted to Danish residents. 

• Similarly, UK residents have another couple of days to scope out entries from the country’s largest LGBTQ festival, BFI Flare (3/20 – 3/29), which has made a bunch of its selections available utilizing the geo-restricted BFI Player platform. You can sign up for a 14-day free trial to watch several of the fest’s 2020 selections. 

Virtual Industry Events

• Hot Docs (4/31 – 5/10) – North America’s largest documentary festival has postponed their event, but are transitioning their Industry passes into an All-Access Digital Pass, which will recreate the forum, talks, pitch, and development services of the festival in remote form. 

Other Approaches

• Some fests are simply trying to preserve their connection to audiences. Tribeca International Film Festival (4/15 to 4/26) has been postponed, but is using their site’s front page to feature a short film a day pulled from the festival’s archives. Most of these are films that are already online, a curational approach that jives with our own! 

• The Glasgow Short Film Festival (3/18 – 3/22) has already set new dates in August, but during their scheduled run last week they entertained their fans with 2 short films a day from the official selection that streamed for free for 24-hours.

Programmer-Led Efforts

• My Darling Quarantine – The brainchild of Enrico Vannucci, shorts advisor for Venice, and programmer for the Torino Short Film Market, this effort crowdsources short film recommendations from a dream-team of international programmers into weekly programs hosted on the new Talking Shorts online magazine. Audiences are encouraged to donate to Medecins Sans Frontieres.

•  Fans of southeast Asian shorts will be happy to visit Lockdown Cinema Club a curated selection of shorts from the region which is fundraising to support the region. Run off of Google Docs, check it out here.

EDUCATION

• Sundance Film Festival was able to hold its main 2020 event back in January, but the London and Hong Kong editions have been postponed. Additionally, the extensive offerings of the Sundance Institute, including their prestigious filmmaker labs, are set to be disrupted. The festival has committed to reimagining 58 of these programs digitally through their new Co//ab educational platform and, in addition, are making that platform’s webinars, member Q&As, and masterclasses, which had been behind a paywall, free to all members of the public.

• On the screenwriting front, tomorrow, 3/28, our friends at Screencraft are hosting a day-long Virtual Screenwriting Summit featuring luminaries such as Alan Yang and Tony Gilroy. Registration required, proceeds will benefit the Writers Guild Foundation, the Writers Guild Initiative, and The American Red Cross.

• Likewise, not a festival, but Field of Vision is one of the most important organizations in documentary production and have announced that they have opened up Virtual Consulting to filmmakers through May.