The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference and Festivals which was cancelled by the City of Austin due to concerns surrounding Covid-19, announced the 2020 Jury and Special Award winners of the 27th SXSW Film Festival. The Grand Jury Prize for Best Film went to Shithouse directed by Cooper Raiff and An Elephant in the Room directed by Katrine Philp won for Best Documentaray.
When Liberty Burns, an incisive look at Miami’s infamous 1980 race riots in Liberty City stemming from the fatal police beating of Arthur McDuffie, directed by Dudley Alexis, won the $30,000 Knight Made in MIA Feature Film Award, the most anticipated prize of the 37th edition of Miami Film Festival.
The Fever, directed by Maya Da-Rin and This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection, directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese are the winners of the 43rd Portland International Film Festival’s Future/future competition.
SFFILM has announced the complete lineup for the 2020 San Francisco International Film Festival (originally scheduled for April 8–21), though the event itself was canceled due to growing safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cannes Film Festival has decided to postpone this year’s festival scheduled to take place May 12 to 23. The festival announced that it is considering options to preserve its running, the main one being a simple postponement, in Cannes, until the end of June-beginning of July, 2020.
The coronavirus, (COVID-19) pandemic is having a devastating impact on film festivals with many postponing or cancelling outright. Major festivals such as San Francisco International Film Festival and RiverRun International Film Festival have canceled, while others such as Richmond International Film Festival and Florida Film Festival have been postponed until the Summer or Fall.
The SXSW Film Festival which canceled this year’s 2020 edition due to concerns over the global coronavirus pandemic, announced that the festival will still hand out film awards.
After Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced restrictions on public gatherings of more than 500 people in a new effort to fight the coronavirus outbreak of the 19th Tribeca Film Festival scheduled for April 15-26, has been postponed until further notice.
The day after President Donald Trump delivered a speech from the Oval Office, and actor Tom Hanks along with his Rita Wilson revealed that they have been diagnosed with coronavirus the seriousness of the global outbreak is continuing to cause the film industry to cancel many upcoming events.
The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a pandemic and more film festivals including Cleveland and Full Frame Documentary film festivals have decided to postpone or outright cancel this year’s edition.
Beijing International Film Festival, Prague International Film Festival, Inwood Film Festival join an ever growing list of film festivals being canceled or rescheduled in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Aspen Film announced the program for the 29th Annual Aspen Shortsfest, an Oscar®-qualifying film festival that showcases the best in short form cinema from around the world. The six-day event takes place at Aspen’s Wheeler Opera House from March 31-April 5, 2020 and at Carbondale’s Crystal Theatre from April 3-5, 2020.