Art in Times of Corona: film festivals and other film initiatives online

Due to the corona crisis many film festivals are cancelled or postponed. Some festival organisations have introduced creative digital measures to enable (a selection of) the festival programming online. The Movies that Matter Festival, that would have taken place in The Hague from 20 – 28 March, is now offering a selection of the programme online. In partnership with the online film platform Picl and Filmhuis Den Haag visitors can now screen films focused on human rights issues from their own homes. The human rights focused festival has also published several interviews with the makers of the films on their site.

The festival films are available from Friday 20 March. Some films can only be watched for a few days, others are available for longer, keep an eye on that. Online visitors pay 8.50 euros per film and get 48 hours admission. The income per view will go to Movies that Matter and Filmhuis Den Haag.

Competitions
The makers of the films in the four competitions – Activist, Camera Justitia, Dutch Movies Matter and Students' Choice – will also compete for the awards. In the next few days, the juries will watch the competition films online and discuss the winner via skype. On Wednesday 25 March the winners will be announced.

The short film festival Go Short planned 1-5 April in Nijmegen was also cancelled, but decided to create an online version. Go Short Online offers a wide range of the original programme of its 12th festival edition and takes place from 15 April – 13 May. The organisation has also joined the international online short film festival initiative My Darling Quarantine!: every week, from Monday to Sunday, the festival presents a programme of seven short films available to watch for free. You can then vote for your favourite and make a donation via GoFundMe. The amount donated will go to charities.

• International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is offering over 300 documentaries that have screened at the festival for free to stream online.
  
• International Film Festival Rotterdam is offering the film La Flor by Mariano Llinás for free across the Benelux until April 6th. The two-time winner of the Hubert Bals Fund Audience Award is a marathon of fourteen hours long, divided into three parts.
  
• Four of Pawel Pawlikowski's award-winning documentaries can be seen on Vimeo. Pawlikowski is a filmmaker for Creative Europe MEDIA supported films like Ida (2013) and Cold War (2018).
  
• Rent a film for free on Filmdoo, the international cinema platform. Use the code TOGETHERWITHFILM at checkout.
  
• Get access to MUBI for 3 months for just 1 euro. Every day a new handpicked film is added to MUBI that is available for 30 days. From forgotten gems to festival-fresh cinema. From cult classics to award-winning masterpieces.
  
• Cinekid en VPRO cinema have compiled a selection of 15 youth films that can be watched for free on NPO Start.

Find more Creative Europe funded projects that are offering alternatives on the website of the Creative Europe Desk NL (Dutch)