Social Distancing with Online Film Festivals
South by Southwest (SXSW) stands as a pillar among other film festivals. Located in Austin, TX, the festival includes comedy shows, quality food, live music, and technology demonstrations ever since its beginnings in 1987. But the film festival still stands above all else at the festival. Due to its popularity, it can be difficult for persons to get a ticket or make the time to travel out to Austin. Because of COVID, SXSW had to cancel for 2020. Instead of altogether scrapping their plans, SXSW decided to showcase the movies online. While the films had the quality presentation and streamed nicely on SXSW's website, it did have trouble conveying the communal aspect of seeing the movie with an audience without using a program like Zoom.
On a national and international scale, film festivals have been occurring online, happening both in-person and online, or rescheduled entirely. Because of the pandemic, organizers faced a difficult choice about what to do in this situation. While some festivals have made online platforms and others use existing platforms, the main focus of preserving the communal experience of watching a film still exists as the most important. Film festivals are not solely for cinephiles, but people are celebrating hardworking creatives in a shared space as one.
Since spring, film festivals began weighing their options for deciding how to adapt to the increasing cases.
"We made the determination that we would move our spring festivals, and that was primarily two events," explains Cliff Froehlich, the executive director of Cinema St. Louis, "the Classic French Festival and QFest into summer to avoid we had hoped, at that point, to preserve an in-person traditional festival experience because we didn't know how things would unfold."
Aside from QFest and Classic French Festival, Cinema St. Louis would have to decide on the best course of action for the 29th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival occurring in the fall. With films such as #Liked, Marriage Story, Beanpole, and Frankie, the filmography covers various countries and genres that appeal to different festival-goers. The filmography does not include the numerous films shown in the other festivals done by Cinema St. Louis.
With the unknown future, film festivals mapped out a few ideas on what to do. D.C. Shorts, a short film festival based in the nation's capital, came up with a few ideas: doing a hybrid of online and physical screenings, wait for theaters to open back up, or to move it entirely online. The festival planed on showing 96 shorts this year from all over the globe. It became apparent to find a solution as fast as possible since theaters were not reopening.
Aside from the main worries like profits, advertising, and technical issues with this shift, the communal experience replication in an online setting weighed on the film festivals' shoulders. The online landscape is entirely new for film festivals. Add in COVID, the urgency to go online increased as film festivals started to search for an online platform.
Peter Morgan, the executive director of D.C. Shorts, explained that the festival picked a platform by "looking at what they provide to the audience so that it's the best audience experience." Audiences hold certain expectations with the atmosphere of film festivals. With going online, the experience needs to differ from streaming by emulating the film festival's communal nature.
Eventive is an online platform used by Cinema St. Louis and D.C. Shorts. Eventive provides not only digital ticketing services but also security, live streaming with audience chat, and the ability to watch it on your computer, T.V. apps, and streaming boxes. It serves the needs of The Atlanta Film Festival to the Sonoma International Film Festival.
Froelich stated about Eventive "they were going to be capable of delivering a secure, robust platform that was going to allow us to actually offer films virtually in a safe environment and stable one." Eventive is quickly growing and utilized by a variety of film festivals.
However, other festivals are creating new platforms for this transition. The Louisiana Film Prize in Shreveport, La. decided to make a new platform after choosing to go online. Like many other film festivals, the ability to interact is essential since the audience participates in the voting process, and filmmakers interact with mentors. Instead of an established service, the organization studied other services and took bits and pieces to make it into their unique service.
Gregory Kallenberg, the executive director of The Louisiana Film Prize, stated, "I think that that we have gotten very good at creating an online experience that just differs from everybody else in the sense that it's more interactive. It feels more alive. It involves more the audience." Aside from viewing the film, the ability for the audience to interact with the filmmaker stands essential.
Also, film festivals created exclusively for quarantine have popped up. The film festivals fill the niche for the previously scheduled film festivals in the spring and summer that either had to reschedule or cancel.
ISO Film Festival is one festival that was created during COVID. Described as "a truly immersive virtual festival" on its website, the submitted films will screen in V.R. chat. Although there is no physical interaction, the V.R. chat can provide that similar sense of communal experience in the virtual setting. One can still chat and interact with each other while in V.R. chat, but it does not have a traditional physical connection. Granted, it might not be a perfect replacement; it can serve that function.
Then comes the topic of online attendance and how it compares to the physical festival. Film Prize Jr., the Louisiana Film Prize's high school equivalent, had 3,000 viewers across the country watch the festival. America's Last Little Italy: The Hill, a documentary centered on the oldest Italian neighborhood in the country, premiered at Cinema St. Louis with about 1,000 attendees online. With the festival occurring online, it can attract a wider audience. Also, it makes the films more accessible to those who could not attend the festival.
Mark Allan Wilson, a film and television professor at Savannah College of Art and Design who has a history with film festivals, said, "I truly believe that movies are made to be watched in pitch-black surrounded by people you don't know. It's a communal experience."
Film festivals are doing their best to bring communal experience online during COVID. "I'd like to actually when the festival is running in its normal fashion continue, but I don't know that I can make that call right now." Froehlich believes. "I certainly hope that that's the case that we're going to be able to use this as an opportunity to broaden our festival audience."
Even if film festivals do not know when they will return to the physical format, online seems to be the best option for them in 2020. Not only is it a more productive approach, but it continues the communal aspect of film festivals. Even during COVID and quarantine, film festivals will do their best to replicate that aspect for the viewer. They are doing their best and hope they can return to normal for next year's festival in 2021.
