Looking At The Transition Of The Film Festival To The Digital Realm, What Are The Challenges?

JAKARTA - Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, film festivals must change their format to online. Not only in Indonesia, but also abroad. A number of film festivals have to screen a variety of films online.

Entering the eighth month of the pandemic, an adaptation was made so that a number of events could run smoothly. Film festivals are no exception. Organizers are flocking to put it online.

We Are One: A Global Film Festival is one of the online film festivals showing films from 20 global festivals and screened for free.

In October, the CGV cinema network moved the 2020 Korea Indonesia Film Festival (KIFF) to an online format. They are working with streaming service GoPlay Indonesia to show Korean and Indonesian films that have previously been shown in theaters.

Likewise, the latest film festival, Europe on Screen 2020, which adopted a similar format due to the pandemic. In the physical version, this festival shows more than 80 films from Europe. But this time they had to reduce the quantity to just 40 films.

The loss of an audience is one of the big challenges because the concept of the film festival itself is to bring together the audience with film activists to exchange ideas and opinions.

This element has not completely disappeared because many festivals have led to webinars and online question and answer sessions. But, on the other hand, the intimacy between film activists and audiences changes emotionally because it is only done through internet screens.

In terms of events, film festivals which are one of the cultural aspects are also limited considering that this event is more than just showing films. The festival also hosts workshops, competitions and markets for finding new productions and connections.

In addition, film piracy will continue to grow, considering that the films shown are usually exclusive or first shown at the festival. Currently, organizers have tricked it by adding a unique code or limiting the viewing window for several hours after the ticket was purchased.

If the audience has not had time to watch, they cannot buy new tickets because the film festival schedule is always changing.

Indeed, piracy continues and grows. To overcome this, filmmakers and audiences must understand several principles. Those who love movies must know how to appreciate a film and one way to watch it legally.

In addition, film festival organizers have also increased security on the internet so that piracy can be stopped.

"Screening a film for the first time digitally is not something that film activists are fond of. You can convince them as much as you want but, just search for the film on a search engine and you will find it," said Paul Jun, CEO of Filmocracy quoted by Digital Trends on Monday, November 16th.

However, if you look at the positive side, film festivals that are held online can reach more new audiences who cannot attend physical events. Because usually, film festivals are only held in big cities.

With this, the public can expand the choice of films freely beyond what is shown in theaters. This method can also provide information to filmmakers that their work was witnessed from various regions other than big cities in Indonesia.

In addition, the interaction between film activists and the audience can be done specifically. Webinars and interview sessions can bring two parties together and communicate with each other.

Not to forget that time efficiency is also an important point of online film festivals. In accordance with the terms of the online film festival, viewers can choose the time to buy tickets and watch it according to the schedule they want without spending time waiting for tickets or movie schedules to be available.

The format may change but film festivals are not completely lost on meaning as there are many new things to be explored from holding film festivals online.