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Tickets for the Shanghai Film Festival started selling two weeks before the festival, only available on line. Within a day and a half the entire festival sold out. I assume it's the combination of movie theaters being closed here for exactly 6 months, combined with theaters only being allowed to reopen at 35% capacity. So a lot of demand and limited supply. The online only sales mean that there are only virtual tickets on mobile phones and so no one scalping tickets at theaters.

So looks like I've been shut out. Hell, 2 weeks ago, I didn't even know that the postpone date had been moved back another week. At least there is no virus here and theater patronage should be safe. I assume that they'll go with 35% capacity for 2-3 weeks and then reassess and probably up it to 50% and then higher. China smart enough to do gradual reopenings in a careful manner. And with virtual tickets/codes on phones, if any audience member comes down with the virus, I assume the gov't could contact trace nearly everyone who was at a given screening.

Venice 2020. Announced a couple of days ago.

COMPETITION

“In Between Dying,” Hilal Baydarov (Azerbaijan, U.S.)
“Le Sorelle Macaluso,” Emma Dante (Italy)
“The World to Come,” Mona Fastvold (U.S.)
“Nuevo Orden,” Michel Franco (Mexico, France)
“Lovers,” Nicole Garcia (France)
“Laila in Haifa,” Amos Gitai (Israel, France)
“Dear Comrades,” Andrei Konchalovsky (Russia)
“Wife of a Spy,” Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Japan)
“Sun Children,” Majid Majidi (Iran)
“Pieces of a Woman,” Kornel Mundruczo (Canada, Hungary)
“Miss Marx,” Susanna Nicchiarelli (Italy, Belgium)
“Padrenostro,” Claudio Noce (Italy)
“Never Gonna Snow Again,” Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert (Poland, Germany)
“The Disciple,” Chaitanya Tamhane (India)
“And Tomorrow The Entire World,” Julia Von Heinz (Germany, France)
“Nomadland,” Chloe Zhao (U.S.)

OUT OF COMPETITION – Fiction

“Lacci,” Daniele Luchetti (Italy) – OPENING FILM
“Lasciami Andare,” Stefano Mordini (Italy) CLOSING FILM
“Mandibules,” Quentin Dupieux (France, Belgium)
“Love After Love,” Ann Hui (China)
“Assandira,” Salvatore Mereu (Italy)
“The Duke,” Roger Mitchell (U.K.)
“Night in Paradise,” Park Soon-Jung (South Corea)
“Mosquito State,” Filip Jan Rymsza (Poland)

OUT OF COMPETITION – Non-Fiction

“Sportin’ Life,” Abel Ferrara (Italy)
“Crazy, Not Insane,” Alex Gibney (U.S.)
“Greta,” Nathan Grossman (Sweeden)
“Salvatore – Shoemaker of Dreams,” Luca Guadagnino (Italy)
“Final Account,” Luke Holland (U.K.)
“La Verità Su La Dolce Vita,” Giuseppe Pedersoli (Italy)
“Molecole,” Daniele Segre (Italy) PRE-OPENING TITLE
“Narciso Em Ferias,” Renato Terra, Ricardo Calil (Brazil)
“Paolo Conte, Via Con Me,” Giorgio Verdelli (Italy)
“Hopper/Welles,” Orson Welles (U.S.)
“City Hall,” Frederick Wiseman (U.S.)

OUT OF COMPETITION – Special Screenings

“30 Monedas – Episode 1,” Alex De La Iglesia (Spain)
“Princesse Europe,” Camille Lotteau (France)
“Omelia Contadina,” Alice Rohrwacher, Jr (Italy)

HORIZONS

“Apples,” Christos Nikou OPENING FILM
“La Troisieme Guerre,” Giovanni Aloi (France)
“Milestone,” Ivan Ayr (India)
“The Wasteland,” Ahmad Bahrami (Iran)
“The Man Who Sold His Skin,” Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia, France, Germany, Belgium, Sweeden)
“I Predatori,” Pietro Castellitto (Italy)
“Mainstream,” Gia Coppola (U.S.)
“Genus Pan,” Lav Diaz (Philippines)
“Zanka Contact,” Ismael El Iraki (France, Morocco, Belgium)
“Guerra e Pace,” Martina Parenti, Massimo D’Anolfi (Italy, Switzerland)
“La Nuit Des Rois,” Philippe Lacote (Ivory Coast, France, Canada)
“The Furnace,” Roderick Mackay (Australia)
“Careless Crime,” Shahram Mokri (Iran)
“Gaza Mon Amour,” Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser (Palestine, France, Germany, Portugal, Qatar)
“Selva Tragica,” Yulene Olaizola (Mexico, France, Colombia)
“Nowhere Special,” Uberto Pasolini (Italy, Romania, U.K.)
“Listen,” Ana Rocha De Sousa (U.K., Portugal)
“The Best is Yet to Come,” Wang Jing (China)
“Yellow Cat,” Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan, France)
“Notturno,” Gianfranco Rosi (Italy, France, Germany)
“Never Gonna Snow Again,” Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert (Poland, Germany)
“And Tomorrow The Entire World,” Julia Von Heinz (Germany, France)
“Quo Vadis, Aida?,” Jasmila Zbanic (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Romania, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, France, Norway.

Especially eager to see Yerzhanov's Yellow Cat. His last film -- A Dark, Dark Man -- was one of my few favorites of 2019.

Il Cinema Ritrovato is streaming a portion of the festival for €50, or you can get streaming access and some swag for €100. There doesn't seem to be a listing of which titles will be streaming, though.

It looks like the detailed streaming program will be uploaded latee indeed. However, if all masterclasses are streaming, I might find it worth its 50€ just for those.

NYFF Main Slate:

Spoiler

Opening Night
Lovers Rock
Dir. Steve McQueen

Centerpiece
Nomadland
Dir. Chloé Zhao

Closing Night
French Exit
Dir. Azazel Jacobs

Atarrabi and Mikelats
Dir. Eugène Green

Beginning
Dir. Dea Kulumbegashvili

The Calming
Dir. Song Fang

City Hall
Dir. Frederick Wiseman

Days
Dir. Tsai Ming-liang

The Disciple
Dir. Chaitanya Tamhane

Gunda
Dir. Victor Kossakovsky

I Carry You with Me (Te Llevo Conmigo)
Dir. Heidi Ewing

Isabella
Dir. Matías Piñeiro

Malmkrog
Dir. Cristi Puiu

Mangrove
Dir. Steve McQueen

MLK/FBI
Dir. Sam Pollard

Night of the Kings (La Nuit des Rois)
Dir. Philippe Lacôte

Notturno
Dir. Gianfranco Rosi

Red, White and Blue
Dir. Steve McQueen

The Salt of Tears (Le sel des larmes)
Dir. Philippe Garrel

Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue
Dir. Jia Zhangke

Time
Dir. Garrett Bradley

Tragic Jungle (Selva Trágica)
Dir. Yulene Olaizola

The Truffle Hunters
Dir. Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw

Undine
Dir. Christian Petzold

The Woman Who Ran
Dir. Hong Sangsoo

I’d kill to see the new Matías Piñeiro, especially if Elisa Carricajo makes a surprise appearance

Definitely the weirdest year for festivals in... well, perhaps ever. Has anyone managed to watch any of the films that were supposed to be slated for Cannes? From what I can tell, two are going around depending on where in the world you are, and another two have played at other festivals.

My local floating experimental film foundation is taking its annual weekend-long festival of new experimental works entirely online this year.

CROSSROADS 2020 features 85 works of film and video by 71 artists representing 22 countries and territories presented in 9 curated programs. Get the thrill of the festival experience by joining us for a series of scheduled livestreams August 21–29. Can’t make it? Don’t have the time? All programs available on a view-when-desired basis August 30–September 30.

The first livestream, a Bruce Baillie memorial, is tonight at 7PM Pacific.

senseabove wrote:Il Cinema Ritrovato is streaming a portion of the festival for €50, or you can get streaming access and some swag for €100. There doesn't seem to be a listing of which titles will be streaming, though.

It’s a well-spent €50 - virtually everything is available to stream for 24 hours from the start time (and many of the interviews and talks stay up throughout the festival). The tech works well, with subtitles available in English and Italian (through my Macbook’s fan makes a bit of a row when casting to the TV).

Last night was the restoration of Bertolucci’s The Spider’s Stratagem, and it looked gorgeous. I’m looking forward to a new documentary on Melville tonight.

Many thanks for the feedback ! I was considering having a look at this too but was unsure at how much of the programme would be available online.

If you look here https://www.mymovies.it/ondemand/cinema-ritrovato/ it states whether items are available worldwide at the top of each item, and most are.

John Waters designed this year's NYFF poster, which fittingly features last year's designer:

Spoiler

That's hilarious, and for sale!

John Waters should be designing every poster in Hollywood.

Discussion of Mandibules moved here

Venice winners:

Golden Lion
Nomadland - Chloé Zhao

Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize
New Order - Michel Franco

Silver Lion for Best Director
Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Wife of a Spy

Volpi Cup for Best Actress
Vanessa Kirby - Pieces of a Woman

Volpi Cup for Best Actor
Pierfrancesco Favino - Padrenostro

Best Screenplay
Chaitanya Tamhane - The Disciple

Special Jury Prize
Dear Comrades - Andrei Konchalovsky

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Talent
Rouhollah Zamani - Sun Children

Damn, I didn't realise Konchalovsky was still making films!

Anyone else trying to watch movies from the NYFF and a little bummed that tickets are sold out for virtual screenings? I guess they have their reasons to limit showings but I can't think of a one of why they'd want to forfeit easy money.

That definitely took me by surprise, I get it for On the Rocks and similar new releases but even the free revival of The Spook Who Sat By the Door was sold out. I ended up getting the Revivals pass and watched Smooth Talk over the weekend. I'm not sure if it's because I was watching on my TV over HDMI but a watermark with my full name and email was on the side of the screen the entire time. I understand it's kind of like a screener but I hate the idea of seeing Flowers of Shanghai for the first time like that. Has this been the case for others?

I was caught off guard by that, too. Very surprising that even the free screenings have limited space.

chiendent wrote: Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:57 pm I'm not sure if it's because I was watching on my TV over HDMI but a watermark with my full name and email was on the side of the screen the entire time.

I watched Sibyl about a week ago and didn't have a watermark. You were watching on a computer connected via HDMI? Was your cursor placed over the video?

Luke M wrote: Mon Sep 21, 2020 1:31 pm Anyone else trying to watch movies from the NYFF and a little bummed that tickets are sold out for virtual screenings? I guess they have their reasons to limit showings but I can't think of a one of why they'd want to forfeit easy money.

Sales agent / distributor contracts. It won't be NYFF's choice. Festival screenings are generally agreed on the basis that they're limited availability and serve as excellent publicity for the main event (theatrical / streaming). Sales agents and distributors don't want festival screenings to 'cannibalize' their more lucrative downstream audiences. I don't necessarily agree that this actually happens, but it's the common argument for limiting festival screenings.

skilar wrote: Mon Sep 21, 2020 7:59 pm I watched Sibyl about a week ago and didn't have a watermark. You were watching on a computer connected via HDMI? Was your cursor placed over the video?

Yeah I don't have a Chromecast right now so figured connecting my laptop was my only option. I'll try again when I watch Damnation, it's very possible I'd placed the cursor awkwardly.