There are wonderful news coming from the United States! Amazon Prime Video have teamed up with SXSW to launch ‘Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection’, which offers filmmakers in the 2020 SXSW Film Festival lineup an invitation to opt in to take part in this online film festival.

The 10-day film festival part of this year’s SXSW was among the many casualties of the last-minute cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival was meant to be a joyous cinematic celebration that included everything from Hollywood blockbusters to sleeper indie flicks and Academy Award-winning documentaries.

In fact, SXSW Film is a crucial part of a small, yet important network of festivals meant to help artists find distributors and get onto the screens. Its cancellation means the abrupt end of a years-long dream for many filmmakers, depriving audiences of new, fresh works of film.

THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE IN AUSTIN ©SHELLEY HIAM

Fortunately, this new collaboration will ensure that these movies will be screened through Amazon’s streaming platform, for the very first time. The Texas-based festival and the tech giant announced the creation of a one-time online film jamboree where filmmakers who were meant to debut their work at SXSW 2020 can do so on Prime. Running the length of SXSW itself, the movie fest will stream for 10 days in the United States, and it will be available for free, with or without an Amazon Prime membership.

Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said in a press release: ‘We’re honoured to be able to provide a space for the SXSW filmmakers to share their hard work and passion with audiences for the first time.’

According to the same release and while the dates are yet to be determined, the Prime film fest could begin by late April. Not much is known about the line-up, either, but filmmakers who were originally slated to appear at SXSW have received details on how to take part. On top of that, they will also be paid a screening fee for the ten days of the festival.

‘I’m thrilled that these two great champions of indie film (SXSW and Amazon Prime Video) are teaming up to resurrect this year’s cancelled film festival’, Jay Duplass, independent filmmaker and SXSW alum, said. ‘These are unprecedented times, and it’s going to take unprecedented solutions to carry on and celebrate these great films and the people who worked so hard to make them.’

On 24^th March of this year, SXSW Film announced the 2020 Jury and Special Award winners of what would have been the 27^th festival. Hopefully, the 28^th will find us all back in Austin.

The San Sebastian and Zurich film festivals have announced plans to introduce more productions at their events later this year, given the massive disruption to the spring and summer cinematic calendar caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

José Luis Rebordinos, Director of the San Sebastián Film Festival (SSIFF), and Christian Jungen, Artistic Director of the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF), confirmed their intention to offer a wider programme that will include films originally selected for showcasing at SXSW and the Tribeca Film Festival. The latter was officially postponed, but new dates have not been announced. Considering that the global efforts to flatten the curve will likely spill into the late summer, we’re not sure when or if we’ll get new dates for Tribeca.

According to Deadline, SSIFF and ZFF will aim to welcome buyers from across the globe, marking a first for both festivals. They will also be introducing new sales projects. CAA Media Finance is supporting this endeavour to transform San Sebastián and Zurich into greater sales markets that will bring together a massively international consortium of agencies, foreign sales companies, financiers, distributors and buyers. Independent film companies are said to be backing this initiative, Wild Bunch and Film Nation included among them.

SAN SEBASTIAN FILM FESTIVAL. PHOTO: MONTSE CASTILLO

Business has been done at these events before, but never on such a scale. ‘If the festival can be held under normal conditions, because the health authorities allow it, we want this edition to serve as an opportunity for films that have not been able to be seen at the festivals for which they were originally selected, to be shown to an audience of buyers and distributors and, at the same time, for these professionals, representatives of the most important companies in the world film industry, to get to know the size of the San Sebastián Festival, its line-up and its activities focused on the film industry’, Christian Jungen said.

He went on to add: ‘We live in disruptive times which also shatter the traditional festival landscape and threaten independent cinema. Many high-profile titles are orphans of a real premiere their cast and crew deserve. So, we are happy to help out holding screenings for buyers together with our friends of San Sebastián.’

The Zurich Film Festival is scheduled from 24^th September till 4^th October 2020. We’ll find out more about screenings and programming at a later date. Venice and Toronto might also attract a larger marked if they’re allowed to go ahead. Cannes, unfortunately, is still a mystery, though there are plans for online market options if the physical event is cancelled.