Locarno Festival Unveils Films After Tomorrow Lineup [EN]

Locarno Festival Unveils Films After Tomorrow Lineup hollywoodreporter.com/news/locarno-festival-unveils-films-tomorrow-lineup-1300336

The Hollywood Reporter

Courtesy of the Locarno Film Festival Locarno 2020 Films After Tomorrow

New projects by Lucrecia Martel, Lav Diaz and Miguel Gomes are among the 20 projects picked for Locarno's alternative section, which will present films forced to stop production because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Locarno International Film Festival has unveiled the 20 projects that will make up its Films After Tomorrow lineup, features that were forced to stop production because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Locarno lineup, announced Thursday, includes new features from arthouse faves Lucrecia Martel (Zama, The Headless Woman), Lav Diaz (Season of the Devil, The Woman Who Left), and Miguel Gomes (Arabian Nights), as well as projects from newcomer and up-and-coming auteurs.

Two juries of film professionals will judge the projects and, on Aug. 15, award cash prizes intended to help the winners complete their films.

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Two Pardo 2020 awards, each worth 70,000 Swiss francs ($74,000), will be given to the best international and best Swiss projects. A 50,000 Swiss francs ($53,000) Campari Award and a 30,000 Swiss francs ($32,000) Swatch Award will go to selected international projects. Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR will also honor a Swiss project with a promotional television campaign valued at 100,000 Swiss francs ($106,000).

Locarno artistic director Lili Hinstin and the Locarno Film Festival selection committee picked their 20-strong lineup — 10 international projects and 10 Swiss projects — from among 545 submitted projects coming from 101 different countries.

The 10 international projects include Lucrecia Martel's Argentine/U.S./Dutch feature Chocobar, Juliana Rojas' Brazilian drama Cidade;Campo, The Fabric of the Human Body from directors Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Eureka by Argentine director Lisandro Alonso, the German/French production Human Flowers of Flesh by director Helena Wittmann, the French/Chinese featureI Come From Ikotun by Wang Bing, Lav Diaz's When The Waves Are Gone, Nowhere Near by director Miko Revereza, Little Solange from French filmmaker Axelle Ropert, and the Miguel Gomes-helmed project Savagery.

The 10 Swiss projects include the Andreas Fontana-directed Azor, Michael Koch's A Piece of Sky, Far West by Pierre-François Sauter, A Flower in the Mouth from director Eric Baudelaire, Mohammed Soudani's L’Afrique des femmes, Les Histoires d’amour de Liv S. from director Anna Luif, Raphaël Dubach and Mateo Ybarra's Lux, Olga by Elie Grappe, Cyril Schäublin's Unrest, and Zahorii, directed by Mari Alessandrini.

All 20 projects are in various stages of development, with some having already begun shooting and others still in the script stage. The filmmakers will present their idea for their finished films to the juries that will then select which projects to back.

Hinstin came up with this unusual approach to a film festival in response to the coronavirus outbreak and the crisis it triggered in the independent industry. While the virus forced Hinstin to cancel the physical version of Locarno this year, she was determined to find a way to support arthouse directors hit hard by the global lockdown.

"Our role as a festival is to build a bridge between films, industry and audience, and so we have tried to find alternative ways of pursuing that mission in a year fraught with difficulties for films and the film business everywhere," Hinstin said.

The Locarno 2020 audience will be able to access a presentation of the selected projects on the festival's website from Aug. 5 until Aug. 15. During the same period, some of the selected filmmakers will hold online masterclasses open to the public, discussing their work and reflecting on what the future may hold for cinema.

Directors will also present finished films, just not their own. In another innovation, Locarno has asked the selected directors to pick their personal favorite title from previous Locarno festivals which will make up the 2020 program. All these titles will be available to screen during the festival. Locarno will announce this "best of" lineup next 2/6

month.

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Toronto Film Festival Unveils First-Ever Virtual Edition Amid Pandemic Scott Roxborough

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Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images Sundance Film Festival

Organizers are expecting January's edition to take place live in Utah and other indie cinemas around the country and virtually.

Newly-installed Sundance Film Festival director Tabitha Jackson is pushing ahead with her event's 2021 edition, but is weighing physical festival and digital options amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"Although it is fair to say that I had not factored a global pandemic and an international reckoning around racial justice into my job application, I did know that as we write the next chapter in the incredible history of the Sundance Film Festival I would want to pose a slightly counterintuitive question: “Where do we begin?� Jackson asked in an festival blog posted on the Sundance Institute website.

Expect a first-time online component for Sundance. "At the center of all our planning, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival will have an online home, making the festival accessible in a way it never has been before," Jackson said.

The 2020 edition of Sundance took place last January in Park City as the Utah mountain resort welcomed festivalgoers from around the world to crowded movie theaters as the global coronavirus spread began to grab media headlines. Sundance organizers, while acknowledging they were "fortunate" to pull off this year's event, don't want to take public health risks next year.

So while the prestigious film festival will continue to be based in Utah, Sundance will also align with at least 20 indie and community cinemas across the U.S. as it looks to build a "grand partnership of communities." Sundance is in early talks with cinemas in 4/6

Los Angeles, New York City, Austin, Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, Detroit and Mexico City.

"Utah has been the home of the festival for close to 40 years and always will be, but the 2021 festival will extend beyond Utah and will be co-created by and for different communities in different locations, preserving what is magical about experiencing films on the big screen with others — even if at a smaller and socially distanced scale," Jackson wrote.

As indie cinemas are brought into the Sundance fold, each will host a bespoke slate of movies from the festival's official selection, alongside complementary titles that each programs. "This plan acknowledges the vital role of the independent cinema network in our ecosystem," Jackson stated.

The Sundance Institute during the 2020 edition named Jackson as its new Sundance Film Festival director, replacing the outgoing director John Cooper. But the UK filmmaker has had anything but a smooth transition as she also prepares for the institute’s 40th anniversary in 2021.

Sundance is also following Cannes, Tribeca, SXSW, Toronto and other main dates on the festival circuit which have already been canceled, postponed or gone with a hybrid model of live and online events. Last week, the Cannes virtual market was held as a digital alternative.

Marquee festivals are also striking industry partnerships elsewhere to stage virtual events. YouTube and Tribeca Enterprises co-produced a new online-only indie cinema showcase, We Are One: A Global Film Festival, as it screened films and other programming from some of the most acclaimed film festivals worldwide from May 29 to June 7.

Venice is sticking to its original plan to hold its festival from Sept. 2-12. And a slimmeddown Toronto Film Festival plans a first-time online platform in September, with inperson theater screenings for around 50 indie film titles during the first five days, but only if public health officials give a green light.

The Sundance preparations for next year also include a possible halt to in-person theatrical screenings if public health conditions show red. "Our model intentionally allows us to dial up or dial down the live gatherings (especially in our Utah home) and festival length as conditions dictate," Jackson wrote.

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