Fall Film Festival Season is upon us! Though the size and scope of the events being presented this season are a bit smaller due to the pandemic. However, beginning with Venice, the film festival industry, which has largely been canceled due to COVID-19 is expected to restart with in-person screenings and fanfare that we normally expect this time of year. But just because people are happy to have a slate of major film events to look forward to in 2020, that doesn’t mean the industry is back to normal. In fact, the Venice boss, Alberto Barbera, warns that the Hollywood studios need to step up and release films if the industry is to return to relative normalcy.
Speaking to Cineuropa, Barbera was asked about the lack of Hollywood studio films at Venice and many of the fall film festivals. As we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, studios have been reluctant to put release dates on films and have largely moved the big features to 2021 to avoid releasing films at a time when theaters aren’t open to full capacities and it’s difficult to recoup costs. The film festival director understands the reluctance but feels the hesitance could have major ramifications for theatrical business.
“I understand the concerns of producers that it is a risk to release their film when not all theatres are open,” said Barbera. “And a certain amount of people are afraid to go to the cinema. But I see another risk when we are waiting one more year to release a film because we need good films when the theatres are open again. The audience won’t have the stimulation to go to the cinema again after it spent months watching films on platforms at home. It is a risk to wait one more year in this particular situation.”
He continued, “Why should somebody be convinced to return to his old habits after one or one-and-a-half years and give up the commodity of watching films at home for a small amount of money? Most distributors are waiting for the good moment to release their films, but that is a risk which could damage the entire distribution system and especially the theatres.”
We’ve said this quite a bit before, but Hollywood is faced with a situation where theaters need to reopen with big movies to attract audiences. However, the studios are scared to release big films without proof they can make their money back. At some point, studios will have to relent and release a big film to test the waters. That seems to be the case with “Tenet,” but after that Christopher Nolan film, it’s unclear if the rest of the studios will roll out big features. And until we get some semblance of a regular release schedule, it’ll be difficult to gauge just how “strong” theatrical business is right now.
And yes, this reverberates down to the festivals, which only premiere films that have release dates in the near future. So, a studio isn’t going to premiere something at Venice if it doesn’t have any hope of hitting theaters this year. That leaves Venice, TIFF, NYFF, and other fall festivals without a bunch of high-profile premieres from A-list actors and filmmakers.
Long story short, studios need theaters to have strong business to have the confidence to release movies. And theaters need studios to release big films to earn strong business. It’s a big problem with no real end in sight.
