Organizers behind Germany's Munich Film Festival decided to call off the annual event completely rather than postpone or go digital — a choice that came down to concerns around rights, piracy and accessibility.
Organizers behind Germany’s Munich Film Festival, set to take place June 25 to July 4, decided to call off the annual event completely rather than postpone or go digital — a choice that came down to concerns around rights, piracy and accessibility.
The first concern was over the rights situation of films. “Dealing with streaming rights is like being in a jungle,” says Gröner. “There are no established rules, so you have to go film by film, and if you play 200 films, that’s 200 very complicated processes, and like many festivals, we don’t have an in-house legal department.”
Munich was also worried about the technical quality of the on-screen experience. The quality and stability of the images would have to match that of global streamers. It is especially hard during the coronavirus crisis because of the, particularly in Europe, given the increased demands on the Internet. Gröner quips, “The Munich opera recently went online and you have the opportunity to see actors freeze on stage.
There was also a concern about the fate of independent films. “One of our core missions is to support small German films, and if you put a film like that out in the digital sphere, I fear it might get lost,” says Gröner. “Whereas if I have the right audience in the right cinema at a specific moment with good trade journalists interested, I can suddenly do something for a film.”
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