David Farnor | On 10, Jun 2020

Glasgow Short Film Festival is going online this August for a digital edition.

The festival was originally postponed in March 2020, after the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown led to the closure of cinemas across the country. With plans to host the event as normal in August now not possible, the festival has instead taken the decision to host a virtual event.

“Se have no intention of giving up on our main purpose of providing shared experiences of watching cinema. But nor do we want to take risks with our audience’s safety, or reduce capacity in a social distancing exercise that detracts from communal viewing,” said the festival organisers in a statement.

The festival will run from 17th to 23rd August, and will be accessible to audiences across the UK, as well as international industry delegates. It will feature competitions, many of the festival’s special programmes alongside some brand new specially curated strands, plus filmmaker interviews and live Q&As. Some elements of the planned 2020 festival will be deferred to the 2021 edition.

There will also be shared events and screenings with Short Waves Festival in Poznań, Poland, which was also forced to cancel and reschedule their festival for a digital event taking place from 18th to 23rd August.

“In this challenging time, international collaboration between festivals is needed more than ever, and we look forward to announcing some shared industry events and public programming,” added GSFF20’s oragnisers.

The 14th edition of GSFF is planned to take place in cinemas as usual from 24th to 28th March 2021. The full programme for GSFF will be announced in early July.

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