How Are Film Festivals Surviving COVID-19?
By: Gena Vazquez
Tags: Film Festivals, Film, Hollywood, Covid 19, Top Story

As the novelty virus was quietly traveling to the U.S. in January, so were thousands of filmmakers. Little did they know that Sundance — quite possibly the first U.S. Petri dish for Coronavirus— was going to be the only major film festival they’d attend in the first part of 2020.

In early March SXSW officially announced that it had to cancel its tech and music conference slated for March 13th to 22nd in Austin, Texas. A first in 33 years. It was also the first of many major festivals like Tribeca and Cannes that would have to put their festivals on hiatus.

“These have been confusing and trying days for all of us to rethink our business models, and the Catalina Film Festival has been focused on how to best serve our filmmakers during this unprecedented and historic time.” — Ron Truppa, Director of the Catalina Film Festival

Many cinephiles wonder what is next…

Festival de Cannes which usually runs in May, announced that it has no plans to retire the physical festival in the future. However, for 2020, it will launch the Marché du Film online on Monday, June 22nd in an effort to support the entertainment community.

Festivals, like the Catalina Film Festival (dubbed Cannes of California), that hold their events in the fall are being proactive while they await further directives from Federal and state public health officials.

City of Avalon, Catalina Island. Photo Courtesy of Catalina Express.

Earlier this week, Ron Truppa, Director of the Catalina Film Festival which will be celebrating their 10th year, commented:

Ron Truppa with Sharon Stone (Winner of Stanley Kramer Award). Photo Courtesy of the Catalina Film Festival

“We never foresaw COVID-19 hindering all live events in 2020, but we were, and are, fully preparing to further integrate our virtual festival for this 10th Anniversary. To great success, we started entering the virtual film festival world in 2019 with our hybrid live event and online festival on the FilmFestivalFlix.com platform, purely out of noticing the trends and preferences of our larger film audience… especially those that can’t afford to travel or physically do so.

As we all realize now, probably more than we ever would have known without this pandemic, viewing entertainment, thought-provoking, and educational films are not only a preference for filmgoers, but they are now part of the fabric of our lives.

Although a huge part of our job as a festival is to bring filmmakers (writers always included in that descriptor) and industry professionals together to build networks, learn from and collaborate with each other, and accredit worthy projects with our hard-vetted awards, the other huge part in helping to find an appreciative audience for these amazing projects. Incorporating more of an online presence for our filmmakers allows us to get them in front of a wider public audience. It also gives them exposure to studio execs, distributors, buyers, and press that would like to see or cover their work, but can’t physically attend our event on a specific date in our region of the country.

Now we offer our films a life after the festival circuit with our Catalina Film Channel for year-round distribution. We stand by our filmmakers and are here to help them however they feel they want to move forward with their project.”

Film Director and Actor Jon Favreau at the Catalina Film Festival. Photo Courtesy of RealTV Films.

The Catalina Film Festival committee is a great example of a well-prepared team that has taken advantage of utilizing online platforms to spotlight filmmakers, screen content, and continue the film festival experience.

For more information about the non-profit Catalina Film Festival visit www.catalinaff.org.