Film Festivals and the COVID-19 Pandemic: How a Global Health Crisis Changed the United States Film Festival Circuit

An essential step in the life cycle of a film, film festivals provide an organized opportunity for filmmakers to present a film to an audience, gain feedback on their work, develop a reputation in the film industry, network with other individuals in the field, and attract the attention of distributors. Fulfilling these purposes became drastically more difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its effects will bring about lasting changes to the independent film landscape once the virus is not an immediate threat to the success of a festival. This thesis outlines strategies taken among film festival organizers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and presents arguments for their utility in the traditional festival environment. It examines the origins of virtual and hybrid film festivals and discusses the components of each that are likely to persist in the festival circuit once the pandemic has ended