WatchSeeLookView At The LFF 2020 - Not Your Usual Festival

It’s October and that can mean only one thing - this blog  becomes entirely subsumed for a month by me wittering on about films from the BFI London Film Festival. If that’s not your bag then best check back in about a month away from now when I’ll probably write something about, I don’t know, farts.*

It’s genuinely the highlight of my pop culture year but it’s going to be a little different this year. How so? Look, I’m going to resist using the phrase “new normal” but you all know it’s not too far away. Yes, it’s 2020, The Year Of The Pandemic, and the LFF has adjusted accordingly. For one thing, the number of films on offer is substantially smaller than in previous years - last year boasted around 360 films; this year, the total is around the 60 mark - largely in part due to production being shut down for most of the year. For another thing, the festival this year is moving predominantly online with only 12 films showing in cinemas and only a few of those being cinema only; the newest Pixar film Soul understandably being one of those (and another possible reason why they are fewer films - a number of distributors may be reluctant to premiere big releases online).

So this year, I will be taking part from the comfort of my own home. Will I miss the experience of seeing them on the big screen with an audience of like-minded film fans with the added bonus of Q&As with the creatives? Of course, that’s part of the whole experience. Am I ready to sit in an enclosed environment for hours and hours during the midst of a global pandemic? Nope.

I’m genuinely pleased that the BFI have moved to predominantly online for this - it keeps the festival going when so many other big events have fallen by the wayside this year. Plus it means that I can do the whole fest basically sat around in my pants eating crisps. Who wouldn't want to go to a festival like that?

So let the “Hopefully Weird Blip Stay-A- Home Film Festival For 2020 Only” begin….

*Not an actual example. Please don’t come back in a month expecting a blog about farts. You will probably be disappointed.