Films Hit Festivals Trying to Create Buzz Without a Crowd

Toronto is trying to create that enthusiasm in the virtual world. Between a select number of online question-and-answer sessions with filmmakers, and both drive-in showings and 50-person theater screenings in Toronto, the event will showcase 50 films instead of the 333 it programmed in 2019. “Concrete Cowboy” will be shown at the festival Sunday — though the filmmakers won’t be there — and online on Monday.

Cameron Bailey, artistic director and co-head of the festival, admits that it’s “strange,” especially without the usual throngs crowding the streets during the 10-day international event. But he said the festival was still able to propel new filmmakers and films, even in a virtual world.

“A festival’s primary currency is intangible — it’s buzz,” Mr. Bailey said. “Buzz is not a physical thing. It doesn’t have to happen in a particular place, at a particular time. It can happen in all different ways, as we know from the internet on a daily basis.”

Film festivals have long been incubators of talented filmmakers. Steven Soderbergh pioneered the modern indie film movement when his first feature, “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” debuted in 1989 at what is now the Sundance Film Festival, and Barry Jenkins and “Moonlight” began their march to the Oscars in Telluride in 2016.

Lee Daniels, a producer of “Concrete Cowboy,” saw his own career take off after debuting the second feature he directed, “Precious,” at Sundance in 2009. That early screening helped propel his movie to two Academy Awards, including one for Geoffrey Fletcher, who became the first Black screenwriter to win an Oscar.

“These festivals give birth to young voices, and they celebrate them,” Mr. Daniels said. “They nurture you.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/business/media/concrete-cowboy-toronto-film-festival.html