The New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) will be held online this year from 24 July until 2 August.
First time NZIFF director Marten Rabarts says preparations for the festival were well underway when Covid-19 struck.
Marten Rabarts Photo: Supplied
Listen to the interview
Other prominent film festivals around the world have been cancelled including Cannes, New York’s TribeCa, and Sydney, but the NZIFF is confident it can go ahead online.
“I took on the festival in October last year and was all gearing up for our first edition in our usual venues like the Civic and the Embassy and the regent in Dunedin and the Theatre Royal plus all the other ones, and then boom we had to change gear and go on a complete different direction.”
It was a question of biting the bullet, Rabarts told Jesse Mulligan.
“We couldn’t rely on the fact that cinemas will be open in July and August to the extent that we would need them to be to mount a festival with gathering restrictions still at level 2 of up to 100 people.
“And on top of that social distancing, it’s very, very difficult for us to put our films in a cinema where you are only able to sell 25 seats.”
The NZIFF is the largest cultural event in the country, he says with over a quarter of a million tickets sold each year.
“So not wanting to let them down, we’ve chosen to take the festival online for the first time.”
Although initially a “heart-breaking decision” there are successful online precedents elsewhere and the festival team swung into action.
“We brought on our usual festival team, we had our marketing team, our catalogue team, our programme delivery team, making sure all the content will be in place, online at the right time.”
Each day, the festival will show a premiere, he said.
“We’ll be having what I’m calling a virtual red carpet for premiere films which will take place each evening. People will introduce their films, everyone can watch a film together in a time locked situation.”
After the premiere there will be online Q&As, Rabarts said.
“We’ll have cast and crew afterwards live doing Q&As discussing the films and taking questions from our online audience.
“We’re trying to build a real festival experience as much as humanly possible and yet keep it online and safe for everybody.”
Ticket prices will be lower this year, he said. And the situation forced upon them opens up the festival to more New Zealanders than normally it would.
“For the first time we’ll be able to take the festival far further across the country, we can take it anywhere people have a decent broadband connection.”
The programme will be announced on Monday 22 June.