It was announced on April 27 that major film festivals around the world are going to unite with Youtube to host an online festival called We Are One. Organised and produced by Tribeca Enterprises, the festival will focus on raising funds for the World Health Organisation Covid-19 Solidarity Response fund, while also celebrating film. The festival will start on May 29 and run for ten days with a programme curated by most of the highly respected festivals; Cannes, Sundance, BFI London, TIFF, Venice, etc. Sydney Film Festival is amongst the list, and the only Australian festival taking part.
It was super exciting to hear about this festival, as prior to it’s announcement it was very up-in-the-air in what direction the film festival could follow. We Are One states it will be “available for free, and will include films, shorts, documentaries, music, comedy, and conversations”. Making the festival free and accessible globally is amazing, as it allows someone from on the other side, like me, to “attend” these international festivals and experience their curation. I love the emphasis on gathering the film community together, despite everyone being at home, to applaud the cinematic art and celebrate the artists who may have missed out on premiering at festivals.
I was a little bit nervous finding out the dates of this festival and seeing it’s collision with NNIFF, but I got over it and accepted the fact that we are at a different scale, and that there’s no such thing as too much love for film!
