With the ravaging COVID-19 grappling film festivals across the globe, streaming video giant platform, YouTube, has decided to fill the social distancing vacuum by planning to launch a 10-day digital film festival this spring with 20 corporate partners, whereby, it will be streamed free to cinema fans everywhere.
We Are One: A Global Film Festival is being produced and organized by New York’s Tribeca Enterprises. The YouTube-hosted event is going to feature programmes and performances from 20 top film festivals including the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and Tribeca Film Festival.
The online festival is scheduled to hold from May 29-June 7, 2020, and will be available at youtube.com/weareone. The free-to-watch event, which will not include any ads, is to include feature films, shorts, documentaries, music, comedy and panel discussions.
Presently, the organizers are yet to identify particular films expected to be screened in the We Are One fest. It was made known that a full schedule will be available in the coming weeks.
Viewers of the fest will be admonished to make donations for COVID-19 relief, which YouTube and Tribeca said will benefit the World Health Organization and local organizations in different regions of the world.
The individual film festivals will uniquely showcase their own programming tracks. The 20 fests that have at the moment partnered with We Are One are: Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival, International Film Festival & Awards Macao (IFFAM), Jerusalem Film Festival, Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, Marrakech International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, San Sebastian International Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Tokyo International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and Venice Film Festival.
One notable festival that isn’t part of the We Are One event is SXSW, which has already had a pact with Amazon to stream 39 films, shorts and series originally set for the 2020 festival in Austin last month. That virtual event, which is also free, kicks off this week.
“We Are One: A Global Film Festival unites curators, artists and storytellers to entertain and provide relief to audiences worldwide,” Jane Rosenthal, head of Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Film Festival, said in a prepared statement. “In working with our extraordinary festival partners and YouTube we hope that everyone gets a taste of what makes each festival so unique and appreciates the art and power of film.”
Understandingly, the special 10-day streaming event on Google’s YouTube is not aim to replace the actual gathering festivals. At the break of the novel coronavirus outbreak, organizers are hoping to leverage on the platform available to make the 2020 film festival circuit a reality devoid of any obstruction. For an instance, the organizers of the Venice Film Festival, said they are planning to hold some sort of in-person event which is slated for 2nd to 12th September,2010. Furthermore, TIFF, which is also traditionally held at the summer (September), is looking forward to having a possibility of holding what is described as a hybrid physical-digital program regardless.
France’s Cannes remains up in the air after two postponements, and the Festival director, Thierry Frémaux told Variety earlier this month that holding a virtual event “wouldn’t work”.
In a joint statement on Monday, Cannes Film Festival president Pierre Lescure and Frémaux said, “We are proud to join with our partner festivals to spotlight truly extraordinary films and talent, allowing audiences to experience both the nuances of storytelling from around the world and the artistic personalities of each festival.”
Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s chief business officer, boasted that the 10-day digital film festival is “an event that’s never been done before and we’re proud to be the home for this fantastic content that is free to fans around the world.”
