At festivals across the globe exactly where his films have premiered, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan has usually waited for the moment when the screenings ended to gauge the reaction of the audience. “Different audiences react differently,” says the Malayalam director recognized for such acclaimed films as Sexy Durga and Chola. “It is a learning experience,” adds Sasidharan, who won the Rotterdam festival’s best award for Sexy Durga in 2017.
This year, also, Sasidharan would have been measuring audience reaction at the Busan international film festival in South Korea, the influential Asian festival that premiered his new function film, A’hr, in October. Instead, he was at his house in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, waiting to interact with the audience on line. “A moderator relayed questions from members of the audience to me at the end of the screening,” explains Sasidharan.
The Covid-19 worldwide pandemic has kept filmmakers away from festivals, as hybrid versions have turn into the norm across the globe. Travel and social distancing restrictions ensured that important international film festivals across the globe switched to physical and on line screenings, even drive-in theatres and open-air cinemas.
At least two important festivals, Sundance and Berlin, scraped by way of, as they occurred at the starting of the year prior to nations went into lockdowns. The Cannes film festival, scheduled for May, decided to cancel its 2020 edition whilst announcing a curtailed official choice to support films arriving in screens early subsequent year to take benefit of the Cannes choice tag.
The initially important festival to go on line was the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the world’s greatest occasion for animated films, in France. The Annecy festival, which feted India as the Guest Country in its 2008 edition, took location on line from June 15 to 30. Marche du Film, Cannes festival’s film marketplace, the greatest in the globe, followed suit, enabling sales agents to meet on line in a curtailed edition postponed from May to June 22-26.
The 45th Toronto international film festival, the greatest in North America and the barometer of the Oscar awards, drastically reduce the quantity of films to about 50 from more than 400 to organise a hybrid edition in the course of September 10-19. The festival lowered the quantity of venues for physical screenings and made a digital platform to host digital screenings, talks and virtual red carpets. It also saluted the city’s frontline workers with a particular digital screening of the Idris Elba-starrer Concrete Cowboy for 500 of them.
Temperature checks, hand sanitisers and QR verify-ins marked the 25th Busan international film festival held in the course of October 21-30. While filmmakers from outdoors Korea didn’t participate, the festival went for “onsite-only” screenings with 25% capacity, on line masterclasses and press conferences.
At least two important festivals, Venice and Tokyo, retained the physical editions this year. The Venice festival (September 2-12) welcomed filmmakers from abroad, like Chaitanya Tamhane, whose new function film The Disciple became the initially Indian film to compete for the Golden Lion in practically two decades. The 33rd Tokyo international film festival, held in the course of October 31-November 9, opted for a physical edition albeit without having the participation of foreign guests.
It wasn’t an simple year for film festivals. “It was very hard to come up with the festival this year,” says Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, festival director of the Ajyal Film Festival, one particular of the greatest festivals for children’s films in the globe, in Doha, Qatar. “It was essential that the festival happen,” adds Alremaihi, chief executive officer of the Doha Film Institute, which organises the Ajyal festival held this year in the course of November 18-23.
“Being online has opened the doors to so many possibilities. We learned so many things. We learned that we can be more open to the world,” says Alremaihi, who believes film festivals in the future will continue some options of the hybrid editions this year when normalcy returns. For instance, drive-in theatres must turn into a normal function.
Film festivals have also announced their wish to adapt without having waiting for the uncertainty to be more than. The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in the Netherlands will celebrate its 50th edition subsequent year in a reimagined format (an expanded multi-portion hybrid structure) spanning February to June. “IFFR, like other major festivals, is built on the principle of large groups of people gathering together to watch as a collective, which is simply not possible given the current restrictions,” says IFFR festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.
“These limitations made us rethink in what form we can best serve the filmmaking community, our collaborative partners and audiences under these circumstances,” adds Kaludjercic, who took more than from lengthy serving festival director Bero Beyer this year. The hybrid model will serve films and premieres with audiences only in the Netherlands, whilst the film marketplace and co-production lab will be solely on line.
(Faizal Khan is a freelancer.)