On 2020’s virtual festivals

s we limp towards the end of a truly, impressively terrible year, attention once again turns towards the prospect of awards season. Usually by mid-September in any given year, film critics have a rough idea of the films that are likely to dominate the conversation for the next six months, culminating in the Academy Awards before we do it all over again. This) but often includes the Venice, Toronto, Telluride and New York film festivals too. In fact, the last Best Picture winner that didn’t premier at one of these events was , back in 2004. As such, festivals have become a sort of showcase for studios – a way of drumming up hype for their big ticket releases, as well as for journalists to gauge the general cinematic temperature of the year.