SXSW 2020: The Aftermath Of The Coronavirus Cancellation

The Austin-based film festival copes with the pandemic’s fallout

The coronavirus outbreak continues to wreak havoc across all parts of the world, and the entertainment industry isn’t immune to it. From film release dates to television show tapings, the industry won’t risk giving the virus a chance to spread (or eating into their profits).

In the film festival world, one of the virus’ largest hits has been on this year’s South by Southwest Festival. The Austin, Texas-based festival was set to run from March 13-22, 2020, but on March 6 it was announced that the festival would be cancelled.

From a legal standpoint it was an unusual development. The cancellation of the privately-run festival was issued by Austin mayor Steve Adler, and not the organization itself. However, Adler cited the rapid pace with which the pandemic was spreading worldwide as rationale for the decree. And with the number of third-party attendees independently pulling out of the line-up – including Apple, Amazon, and Netflix – SXSW reluctantly agreed to the cancellation.

“[T]his situation evolved rapidly, and we honor and respect the City of Austin’s decision,” SXSW posted in a press release about the event. “We are committed to do our part to help protect our staff, attendees, and fellow Austinites.”

Lay-offs and losses

Unfortunately, cancelling such a large event doesn’t come with economic immunity.

At least 50 SXSW employees have been laid off since the cancellation, which is estimated to be about a third of their work force. The lay-offs haven’t been department-specific, either, as they’re said to include new hires and longtime staffers. According to a festival official, it was “the only way to stop the bleeding”.

Roland Swenson, the CEO of SXSW, says the organization’s insurance policies never covered anything in the realm of pandemics.

We’ve had to show our insurance policy to all kinds of people, and nobody ever said, ‘Hey, there’s a big hole here’….We’d always taken the attitude of, ‘Well, we’ll never cancel, so that’s not going to be an issue.’

Swenson went on to speculate that the organization stands to lose “tens of millions of dollars”. For comparison, the 2019 iteration of the festival brought in an estimated $157 million to Austin’s local economy. Swenson hopes the festival will be back in 2021, but admits that he’s “not entirely sure” how that will happen.

Keeping heads high

Other victims of this cancellation are the independent artists who are now without a platform. While SXSW has become a place for studios and big tech companies to showcase their latest and greatest, it’s long been a launching pad for smaller artists trying to break into the industry. Now, without a sponsored venue, the independent filmmakers set to premiere at SXSW have lost a sizable level of exposure.

Some publications recognize this struggle, and they won’t let these premieres go ignored. IndieWire’s executive editor Eric Kohn declared the site’s intention to review the festival’s films as planned, however possible.

While a handful of studio movies use the festival to build buzz leading up to their release dates, for many of the lower-budget projects SXSW provides a crucial launchpad. IndieWire wants to support that ecosystem and the ripple effect it can have in the industry. SXSW also allows us to maintain our year-round assessment of contemporary cinema following our coverage at Sundance and Berlin; given the opportunity to continue that process of discovery and evaluation, we were keen on pressing ahead. Our reviews will adhere to the original festival embargo times, unless we’ve been instructed otherwise.

Kohn admits that this isn’t all too different from their typical approach, as they’ve reviewed a lot of the festival line-up via screeners before. He emphasizes that IndieWire wants to keep the opportunity for exposure open, since these smaller movies “could have a hard time squeezing into lineups at other major festivals, if they make it there at all.” Regardless, he says the site will respect the filmmakers’ wishes if they wish to delay their premieres (perhaps vying for another high-profile premiere at the likes of Tribeca or Cannes).

Coronavirus briefing

COVID-19, colloquially known as the coronavirus outbreak, continues to wreak havoc across the world. Although the spread of the virus is starting to slow in China, it’s spiking in other parts of the globe. CNN reports that over 110,000 cases of the virus have been reported worldwide, with upwards of 4,000 deaths. Italy has seen a large amount of outbreaks, and is currently under a country-wide lockdown.

In the U.S. specifically, 732 cases have been reported across 20 states, with 26 of the cases resulting in deaths.

Various other events have seen cancellations or postponements as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. To name a few:

• The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco was cancelled on February 28.
• The Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle was postponed on March 6, the same day as SXSW. (Washington state is currently seeing the highest amount of coronavirus cases and related deaths.)
• The Indio, California-based music festivals Coachella and Stagecoach have both been postponed from their March 2020 dates to back-to-back weekends in October.
• The upcoming Democratic debate in Phoenix will no longer have a live audience. Democratic nominees Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders also cancelled rallies in Cleveland, Ohio, scheduled for Tuesday, March 10.

Leave your thoughts on South by Southwest’s cancellation in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic (via The Verge, IndieWire, and Variety) and this article below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. For more Film Festival news coverage, photos, videos, and information, visit our Film Festival Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Flipboard.