THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 16 MARCH 26, 2020
HU
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IMAGES.Behind the HeadlinesThe Report
As festival markets shutter, sellers are
sending screening links and brainstorming
virtual marketplaces BY MIA GALUPPO‘The Baseline for
Filmmakers Now
Is Uncertainty’A
fter the cancellation of SXSW and
postponement of Tribeca, a slew of once-
festival-bound indie features are working not to
get lost in the shuffle. For many filmmakers and
sellers, the choice now is to send screening links
to projects or wait months until a viable market
takes place. “The baseline for filmmakers now is
uncertainty,” says director Noah Hutton, whose
movie Lapsis was set to premiere in the Narrative
Feature Competition section of SXSW. After the
fest was scrapped, Hutton and his producers
decided to house the movie on Shift72, SXSW’s
secure online screening library. The platform was
used to screen the title for judges
and allows filmmakers to choose
whether their projects can be made
available to press and buyers.
Several filmmakers had plans to
screen their festival films for buy-
ers in New York and Los Angeles
screening rooms — but that was
ruled out when the cities enacted
stay-at-home orders. “We just don’t
have the luxury of waiting to try to
create that experience,” notes a seller, who had
a slate of features bound for both SXSW and
Tribeca. The sales agents who spoke to THR note
that they each had been in contact with the major
streaming services about buying finished fea-
tures given the halt in production. But the worry
within the indie film community is that streamers
will look first to the major studios, whose own
films have been delayed by theater closures.
Efforts are being made to fill the virtual screen-
ing void. “We would hate to see filmmakers who
spent all these years on their films not get any
eyeballs,” says Richard Botto, CEO of Stage 32.
Launched as a networking site for industry pros,
the platform is offering to screen films that were
set to premiere at SXSW and other canceled
fests. Botto says more than 35 SXSW projects
have committed to screening on the platform.
Filmmakers will be able to post their films free of
charge, publicly or privately, with the latter avail-
able only to the platform’s members, who include
distributors, buyers and sales agents. Meanwhile,
a plan led by CAA, other agencies and sellers is
being made to create a virtual marketplace for
the titles set for the now-postponed Cannes Film
Festival and the attached Marché du Film (timing
is TBD). Notes another seller, “the good news is
that we have a lot of finished films.”BottoHuttonWARNER BROS.
Among the studio’s concessions to the novel coronavirus,
it has delayed its release of the musical In the Heights and
animated feature Scoob! while pushing back the theatrical
opening of Wonder Woman 1984 to Aug. 14.SPAGO
Wolfgang Puck’s flagship Spago switched to contactless
takeout and delivery after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered
restaurants closed to dine-in customers. Dishes include spring
asparagus risotto and roasted half Jidori chicken.10:20 A.M.
FRIDAY, MARCH 20
Warner Bros., Burbank3:04 P.M.
TUESDAY, MARCH 17
Spago, Beverly Hills10rep_page7_L [P]{Print}_53732676.indd 16 3/25/20 1:50 PM