The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a wrench into film festival season, including the cancellation of South By Southwest in March, Tribeca in April and Cannes in May.
As a result, 21 international film festivals have banded together to create the We Are One: A Global Film Festival, which will screen select films virtually from May 29 to June 7.
Together, they’ve curated over 100 films free to watch without commercials on YouTube.
The lineup represents films from 35 countries, including 23 narrative features, eight documentary features, 57 narrative short films and 15 documentary short films.
Much of it is new content with 13 world premieres and 31 online premieres.
It includes the world premiere of documentary “Ricky Powell: The Individualist,” chronicling the eponymous street photographer with interviews by LL Cool J and Natasha Lyonne.
It also includes the online premiere of the satire “Eeb Allay Ooo!” about “monkey repellers” in New Delhi that already won the Golden Gateway Award at the Mumbai Film Festival.
Sports fans will enjoy Joan Chen’s world premiere documentary “Iron Hammer” about Chinese Olympic volleyball star Jenny Lang Ping, who shattered glass ceilings.
Music fans can check out the world premiere of the Third Eye Blind documentary short “Motorcycle Drive By,” as well as a special DJ set by Questlove from Roots.
Cartoon fans will enjoy “Bilby,” “Marooned” and “Bird Karma” by DreamWorks Animation.
If you’re more into episodic storytelling, check out the Israeli neo-noir “Losing Alice” and the political docuseries “And She Could Be Next” about women of color running for office.
There’s even a film shot exclusively for the fest: Koji Fukada’s “Yalta Conference Online.”
Perhaps most fascinating are virtual reality pieces like “Alteration,” a sci-fi experience starring Bill Skarsgard, and “Driving While Black,” an immersive look at racial profiling.
There will also be panel discussions by Francis Ford Coppola, Bong Joon-ho, Steven Soderbergh, Song Kang-ho, Guillermo del Toro, Jane Campion and Claire Denis.
The 21 participating festivals include:
- Annecy International Animation Film Festival
- Berlin International Film Festival
- BFI London Film Festival
- Cannes Film Festival
- Guadalajara International Film Festival
- International Film Festival & Awards Macao
- International Film Festival Rotterdam
- Jerusalem Film Festival
- Mumbai Film Festival
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
- Locarno Film Festival
- Marrakech International Film Festival
- New York Film Festival
- San Sebastian International Film Festival
- Sarajevo Film Festival
- Sundance Film Festival
- Sydney Film Festival
- Tokyo International Film Festival
- Toronto International Film Festival
- Tribeca Film Festival
- Venice Film Festival
While the festival is free of charge, audiences can click a link to donate to COVID-19 relief efforts by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, Leket Israel, GO Foundation, Give2Asia and other organizations.
