Film / News
MUBI launches fund to support independent cinemas as industry plans June reopening
As the cinema exhibition industry prepares for a provisional late June reopening, online streaming service and film distributor MUBI has launched a UK Cinemas Fund to support indies and film festivals across the country that are struggling with the impact of the covid-19 pandemic. MUBI kicked off the crowdfunder, which is in support of the £1.3m BFI FAN Covid-19 Resilience Fund, with a £10,000 donation towards the £100,000 target. Go here to donate.
Meanwhile, trade journal Screen International reports that the UK Cinema Association and Film Distributors’ Association have joined forces in a provisional plan to begin reopening cinemas from late June. Clearly, this is dependent upon the government’s strategy for lifting lockdown. Billed as ‘Back to the Cinema’, the campaign aims to reassure cinemagoers that appropriate safeguarding measures are in place while exciting them about upcoming summer blockbusters, some of which – such as Disney’s Mulan and A Quiet Place II – were originally due for release when the nation’s cinemas closed on March 20. The Vue chain is eyeing mid-July for its reopening with Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, while Irish cinemas have already been given the green light to reopen from August 10, with appropriate social distancing measures in place, as part of the fifth and final phase of the Irish government’s ‘roadmap’ for lifting lockdown.
https://youtu.be/Vz81-Sq7zXw
is needed now More than ever
At the risk of coming over all Priti Patel in the ‘No shit, Sherlock’ stakes, it’s been a terrible time for cinemas. The BFI has just published statistics revealing that admissions for the first three months of the year were the lowest since analysis began back in 2002. That’s mainly because March’s 4.81 million admissions were down 58% on the same period in 2019. But in fact, the year got off to a very strong start, with January and February ticket sales up by 20%, buoyed by Oscar winners 1917 and Parasite.
Elsewhere, the British Film Commission is beavering away on detailed Covid-19 Codes of Practice for film and TV production so we’ll all have something new to watch when the current backlog is finally cleared. For some idea of what future productions might look like, here’s their guidance on crowd scenes: “Crowd scenes should be replaced with CGI where possible to reduce the number of supporting artists on set. Extras should be kept socially distanced, should not be facing each other and should be on set for as little time as possible.”
Read more: ‘Social distancing in a mosh pit? Not going to happen’
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