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The New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) will be held online this year from July 24 to August 2.
NZIFF first director Marten Rabarts says preparations for the festival were underway when Covid-19 attacked.
Marten Rabarts
Photo: Supplied
Other prominent film festivals around the world have been canceled, including Cannes, New York’s TribeCa, and Sydney, but the NZIFF is confident that it can move forward online.
“I attended the festival in October last year and was preparing for our first edition at our usual venues like the Civic and the Embassy and the Regent in Dunedin and Theater Royal plus everyone else, and then we had to do it. shift gears and go in a completely different direction. “
It was about biting the bullet, Rabarts told Jesse Mulligan.
“We could not rely on the fact that the theaters will be open in July and August to the extent that we would need them to run a festival with collection restrictions even at level 2 of up to 100 people.”
“And in addition to that social distancing, it is very, very difficult for us to put our films in a cinema where you can only sell 25 seats.”
The NZIFF is the largest cultural event in the country, he says, with more than a quarter of a million tickets sold each year.
“So not wanting to disappoint them, we have chosen to host the festival online for the first time.”
Although it was initially a “heartbreaking decision,” there are successful precedents online elsewhere and the festival team kicked in.
“We brought in our regular festival team, we had our marketing team, our catalog team, our program delivery team, making sure all the content was in place, online at the right time.”
Every day, the festival will show a premiere, he said.
“We will have what I call a virtual red carpet for premiere movies that will take place every night. People will present their movies, everyone can watch a movie together in a limited time situation.”
After the premiere there will be questions and answers online, Rabarts said.
“Then we will have a live cast and crew asking questions and answers about the movies and answering questions from our online audience.
“We are trying to build a real festival experience as much as humanly possible and yet keep it online and safe for everyone.”
Ticket prices will be lower this year, he said. And the forced situation upon them opens the festival to more New Zealanders than it normally would.
“For the first time we will be able to take the festival much further across the country, we can take it anywhere where people have a decent broadband connection.”
The program will be announced on Monday, June 22.
