The annual Aspen Shortsfest will go on as scheduled, but is moving from the Wheeler Opera House to online because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The festival is expected to make an announcement on Monday. Tickets will go on sale Tuesday through aspenshowtix.com.
An Oscar-qualifying short film festival produced by Aspen Film, it will take place March 31 through April 5 through the Paris-based online platform Festival Scope.
Shortsfest, now in its 29th year, had been scheduled to run on those dates at the Wheeler. Tickets for the festival at the Wheeler went on-sale March 12. It was canceled that evening as restrictions on public gatherings tightened due to the coronavirus pandemic. But upon announcing the cancellation, Aspen Film executive director Susan Wrubel said she and her team were already working on a virtual version.
“We knew we wanted to do it, but we weren’t sure we could do it,” Wrubel said Friday.
As festivals worldwide canceled in recent days — including, most recently and prominently the Cannes Film Festival — presenters have sought ways to host virtually. Wrubel said Aspen Film and other members of Film Festival Alliance collaborated to find platforms like Festival Scope that might provide tools for at-home festivals that could preserve festivals’ Oscar-qualifying status while theaters are closed.
The online Aspen Shortsfest will include most of the originally announced lineup of 71 films, with selections overseen by the festival’s new director of programing Jason Anderson.
“We believe these are some of the most compelling, innovative, beautiful, hilarious and emotionally resonant films that our amazingly generous audience in Aspen will experience this year,” Anderson said. “We’re thrilled to showcase such an abundance of emerging and established filmmaking talent from all over the world. That’s why we’re so happy to have this opportunity to present them despite the very challenging circumstances that surround all of us right now.”
Films in the lineup will still qualify for Academy Award consideration in the shorts categories.
In order to retain the Oscar-qualifying status, Shortsfest had to remain private — i.e. not streaming for the general public or posted on YouTube — and its jury members had to agree to adjudicate Shortsfest’s awards virtually.
“We spoke to the Academy as soon as we were thinking about this,” Wrubel explained. “Their whole thing was as long as there is a private festival and there is a jury, then you’re still Oscar qualifying.”
Shorsfest awards cover animation, documentary and fiction categories and include the Ellen Award, — named in honor of Aspen Film founder Ellen Hunt — and the Vimeo Staff Pick Award, which comes with a $2,500 prize and will make the winning film available for viewing worldwide as a Vimeo Staff Pick on April 6.
Shortsfest will be the first festival that will be presented in its entirety on Festival Scope’s platform, which normally exhibits portions of film festivals for a virtual online audience.
The online Shortsfest will be a “limited-time event,” running only during the festival dates. Viewers will purchase special access codes to screen programs of the selected films, which will be presented in curated programs rather than individually. Access will be limited to viewers in the United States.
Viewers will receive a unique link to each program purchased for a one-time viewing. Chrome is the recommended browser for screening, but Festival Scope is compatible with the latest versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer and others. It is supported on iOS and Android devices.
Though the new format opens up Shortsfest to a potentially huge nationwide online audience of cinephiles and the weary quarantined, ticket sales will still be capped at 500 for each festival and may sell out.
Wrubel said Aspen Film wanted to keep the festival to a comparable audience size as the in-person version because she did not want to exploit the filmmakers who are exhibiting through the festival and did not want to risk harming their chances of getting commercial distribution in theaters.
“All of these people are struggling and emerging filmmakers,” Wrubel said. “We don’t want to exploit them and their incredible work.”
Ticket purchasers will also have the option of donating to a filmmaker fund. Wrubel said the initiative is one of the ways Aspen Film will “try to give back a bit more to the filmmaking community.”
The legion of Shortsfest alumni who’ve sprung from Shortsfest to the heights of Hollywood include “Just Mercy” director Destin Daniel Cretton, “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle and leading auteurs like Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”), Jean-Marc Vallee (“Dallas Buyers Club”) and Sarah Polley (“Stories We Tell”).
Recent Shortsfest Oscar nominees and winners include “Brotherhood” (2019, Best Live Action Short Film); “NEFTA Football Club” (2019, Best Live Action Short Film); “Life Overtakes Me” (2019, Best Documentary Short Subject); “Sister” (2019, Best Animated Short Film); “Fauve” (2018, Best Live Action Short Film); “Weekends” (2018, Best Animated Short Film); and “Bear Story” (2016, Best Animated Short Film).
“As a presenting arts organization, our mission is to enrich, enlighten, educate and entertain through cinema,” Wrubel said. “We believe that culture is essential, and we are hoping to be able to offer something new in this crazy time, while allowing folks the comfort of remaining inside.”