Garden State Film Festival Goes Virtual, Plans To Stream Over 240 Movies

By Dino-Ray Ramos

By Ramin Setoodeh

NEW YORK -- The popcorn will be bring your own and the barbecue won't be as good, but the Austin, Texas, SXSW Film Festival is moving online after having its 27th edition canceled by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Palais des Festivals, the main complex used for the Cannes Film Festival each year has been repurposed to shelter the homeless during the coronavirus outbreak that has taken hold of most countries around the globe. The huge centre has reportedly opened its doors to around 50-70 homeless people per night in the coastal city in the south of France. It reportedly opened its doors last Friday.

In today’s film news roundup, Canada’s largest LGBTQ film festival gets postponed, the commercial industry’s health plan addresses the coronavirus pandemic and Margaret Qualley’s “A Head Full of Ghosts” finds a home.

By Amanda N'Duka

The 28th edition of the Raindance Film Festival will take place in London from Oct. 28 through Nov. 7. this year.

Though this year’s SXSW was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the film festival held annually in Austin, Texas announced 2020 award winners.

The postponement of the Cannes Film Festival from mid-May to the end of June has elicited a mix of sadness and scepticism among international film executives.

The day after L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the closure of all gyms, movie theaters and dine-in restaurant services, the city of Beverly Hills took some precautions of its own to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

When it comes to film festivals, everyone follows Cannes’ lead, which is why it’s curious that the influential French event, originally scheduled to unspool from May 12-23 this year, waited more than a full week after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic — and two weeks after the French government banned public gatherings through the end of May — to announce that it would not take place as originally planned.

The inevitable has finally happened: coronavirus has canned Cannes. The Cannes Film Festival said Thursday it is postponing its 2020 edition, marking one of the biggest business and entertainment event cancellations due to the virus. Organizers said they are now eyeing dates in late June to early July.

The 73rd Cannes Film Festival has been postponed over coronavirus.

We all knew this was coming. As the world shuts down because of Coronavirus and large gatherings are banned, in order to slow the pandemic, the Cannes Film Festival was an inevitable casualty. It was a matter of when it would be postponed, not if. Well, that news has finally come down, pushing the fest from its initial plan to be held in the middle of May. It was just a matter of time until this happened, though it’s obviously still a bummer.

The Sydney Film Festival, set to have taken place in June in Australia’s most populous city, has been canceled.

SiriusXM announced on Monday (March 16) that it will be launching the Ultra Virtual Audio Festival on UMF Radio starting this Friday (March 20).

“Happy Old Year,” directed by Thailand’s Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, was named as the winner of the Grand Prix best picture award at the Osaka Asian Film Festival, which concluded its virus-impacted 15th edition at the weekend.