Emily Hoe on How the Singapore Film Festival Planned its Way Through a Virus Hit Year

At one point, the 71st Berlin Film Festival was planning on being held as planned. An in person festival, held in February, was always a long shot, but hope sprung eternal.

With 2020 basically canceling much of the film festival season, or at least forcing many to go digital, the hope was that 2021 would be different. Well, COVID-19 doesn’t care about what the film industry wishes would happen.

Berlin Film Festival, one of the world’s leading gathering points for the international film industry, is set to radically alter its 71st edition, Variety has learned exclusively.The festival was originally scheduled to run as a physical event from Feb. 11-21, but rising COVID-19 infections in Germany have forced a rethink.

down from 118 in 2020 — as it made plans for a nearly all-virtual event from Jan. 28 to Feb.

Earlier today, the Sundance Film Festival revealed its full program for the 2021 incarnation of the fest. Obviously, it won’t be taking place solely in Park City, Utah, as the COVID-19 pandemic is still impacting the industry in a major way.

A Questlove-directed documentary about the other major music event of the summer of 1969 and documentaries about the creators of Sesame Street and the coronavirus pandemic in China are among the 72 feature films debuting at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Organizers on Tuesday unveiled a robust and diverse slate for the festival, which will be largely virtual due to the pandemic.The festival will kick off on Jan.

The fact there are even 72 selections for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival is something of a miracle. The fall festivals had the benefit of movies that mostly shot before the pandemic hit in March.

The 2021 Sundance Film Festival is going to be different than any other previous version of the event. Due to its winter schedule, this year, the American festival was able to come in right before COVID-19 took hold in the US and canceled a bunch of other film events in 2020.

Kaleem Aftab The Cairo International Film Festival scrapped the red carpet and press conference for Egyptian filmmaker Islam El Azzazi’s debut feature and competition film “About Her” after a number of sexual misconduct allegations were made against the director and surfaced in the hours before the film’s world premiere this week.The first of the allegations against the director was submitted anonymously to Daftar Hekayat, an Arabic blog that shares stories of sexual violence survivors in their

Kaleem Aftab British film “Limbo,” a wry refugee drama, directed by Edinburgh-born director Ben Sharrock and produced by Spain’s Irune Gurtubai, won the Golden Pyramid for best film at the Cairo Film Festival on Thursday.Told in a pleasing deadpan style, “Limbo” recounts the story of a Syrian musician, played by the BIFA nominated rising star Amir El-Masry, who is placed on a Scottish island when awaiting his request for asylum to be processed.

Ann-Marie Corvin With the success of Netflix’s Egyptian horror series “Paranormal” and a slew of streamers such as Viu and OSN seeking locally produced originals, the TV market in Egypt is set to undergo rapid change.In response, Cairo International Film Festival’s TV Pitch Market, part of the festival’s Industry Days program and now in its second year, joined forces with Middle East Media Initiative (MEMI) to shape 11 TV projects into a “pitchable” form this week.MEMI, a University of Southern

direct to your inboxAndy Burnham is planning to freeze the element of council tax bills that pays for mayoral functions next April.The precept - which is used for a number of Greater Manchester-level purposes, including part-funding the fire service and mayoral priorities such as free bus passes for young people - will stay as it is under proposals that will go before council leaders in the New Year.That would see the mayoral charge stay at £70.73 for a Band B property.Last April, the precept

José F. Rodriguez and Karen McMullen have joined the Tribeca Film Festival programming team led by fest director and VP of programming Cara Cusumano as the New York event plans its 20th edition.

Vivienne Chow An intense weekend of live-streamed esports action, comprising a regional championship, kicked off the inaugural edition of SuperGamerFest 2020. The event is a new addition to this year’s Singapore Media Festival and taps into the region’s fast growing gaming industry.Spanning the first two weekend of the month (Dec.

Blake Shelton Zoomed in for a chat with Florida’s “Obie & Ashley in the Morning” radio show, where the conversation turned to his recent engagement to longtime girlfriend Gwen Stefani.

Vivienne Chow The hybrid festival model, combining in-theater screenings and online playout, that emerged during coronavirus lockdown periods may help festivals reach a wider audience, said panelists at a Singapore International Film Festival talk on Wednesday.The transition from programming traditional festivals to putting together online ones initially posed tech problems, said Anderson Le, festival consultant and artistic director of the Hawaii International Film Festival, and Prashant

As the Venice, Toronto and New York Film Festivals demonstrated earlier this year, a memorable celebration of cinema can still be held in the middle of a pandemic. The next major cinephile event on the calendar is America’s independent cinema showcase, the Sundance Film Festival.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterThe next edition of Sundance Film Festival will take place in Park City, Utah — and New York, and Ohio, and Tennessee, and Kansas, and California, and Florida.The 2021 festival, which runs from Jan. 28 through Feb.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentTwo years ago Egyptian film producer and screenwriter Mohamed Hefzy was appointed president of the Cairo Film Festival with a mandate to revamp and relaunch the prominent Arab fest, which had been losing luster due to political turbulence. Having largely accomplished that with last year’s watershed edition, Hefzy had to face new challenges this year, contending with COVID-19, of course.