The 2020 Palm Springs International ShortFest announced its juried award winners from the 332 shorts films that were part of the Official Selection and made available online to screen from June 16-22. The top prize, Best of the Festival Award went to Matriochkas directed by Bérangère Mc Neese.
11 short films from 12 countries will encompass the Official Selection of short films in Competition at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. Five female directors are also featured in the 2020 Official Selection.
Ashland Independent Film Festival wrapped up its virtual 19th annual edition, with the awards celebration. Fernando Frias’s I’m No Longer Here, which had been selected for the original festival in April but, at the request of its distributor, Netflix, was not included in the virtual festival, won the award for Best Narrative Feature. A decision was made by AIFF not to penalize filmmakers whose films could not be screened online, and all original selections remained in the jury award competitions. Only virtually screened films, however, were eligible for the audience awards.
The premiere North American LGBTQ film festivals: Frameline (San Francisco), Inside Out (Toronto), NewFest (NYC), and Outfest (Los Angeles), today announced their commitment to supporting LGBTQ film and filmmakers across their markets through the formation of NAQFA: the North American Queer Festival Alliance. This alliance will work collaboratively to produce, present and expand initiatives and programming while offering support to the LGBTQ film festival sector in the US and Canada. The announcement was made today by the Executive Directors of each festival, James Woolley of Frameline, Andria Wilson of Inside Out, David Hatkoff of NewFest and Damien S. Navarro of Outfest.
With a program lineup that travels the globe from Ireland to Argentina to Kazakhstan, the 48th edition of the Dance on Camera Festival, running July 17-20, 2020, will be presented digitally for the first time,
Palm Springs International ShortFest has selected 332 short films in their Official Selection of the 26th edition that will be eligible for jury award consideration. These films represent 69 countries and were selected from more than 6,000 submissions received this year. While ShortFest will not hold an in-person event, a number of the official selection films will be available to screen for free online from June 16-22, 2020.
The 24th annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF) set for August 21-30, 2020 will take place online at abff.com. The ABFF Online Edition will continue the tradition of the live festival, featuring the best of independent black cinema, studio premieres, conversations and panels, business of entertainment seminars, along with virtual networking events.
With Dutch cinemas now re-opening, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is looking to hold the 33rd edition of the festival in theaters from November 18th to 29th, with potentially reduced capacity. The festival’s competitions will remain intact, to be presented in cinemas and extended with limited virtual cinema screenings and events.
The Hong Kong International Film Festival which was postponed due to the COVID19 pandemic today announced that the 44th edition of the festival (HKIFF44) will now take place from August 18-30, 2020.
Ahead of the world premiere as part of Sheffield Doc/Fest’s Digital Edition in the Ghosts and Apparitions selection, the documentary Me and the Cult Leader debuted the new trailer. In the film, director Atsushi Sakahara chronicles his intimate journey of confronting the doomsday cult behind the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo metro system on March 20th, 1995.
Calgary Underground Film Festival announced its lineup for the 17th edition of the festival. Originally scheduled to take place in April, like many other festivals around the world, CUFF has shifted to an online model for the 2020 edition. From June 22-28 CUFF fans will have the opportunity to get their eyes on the newest genre-defying independent films not streaming anywhere else, and ensure that these films find an audience while film festivals are paused and cinemas remain closed.
The 24th edition Fantasia International Film Festival taking place online from August 20 through September 2, 2020, revealed a selected first wave of film titles.