Dear friends of “Scanorama”,
Following the unfortunate events worldwide and the concerns regarding the potential COVID-19 resurgence in Europe, we wanted to reach our to all of our friends and partners outside Lithuania with the assurance that the 18th European Film Forum SCANORAMA will definitely take place in November 2020.
Currently in Lithuania the pandemic-related restrictions forced upon the various businesses are changing daily, which is why we are intensely preparing for all possible scenarios. If things won’t suddenly take a turn for the worst, we will be doing physical screenings of our programme. However, these will have to take place with capacity restrictions. Moreover, we must be prepared that in a couple of months our government will make the decision to ender another lockdown. Which is why to compensate for the unavoidable drop in attendance, we will be launching an online platform (in cooperation with Shift72) that will make most of our films available Lithuania-wide.
After much consideration we have decided that the circumstances also demand we cancel all the invitations for our international guests. First, this will not make them face the decision of abandoning the safety of their homes and facing the threats of long-distance travel. In addition, not having to travel to Lithuania will spare them the possible time in self-isolation they might have to endure after they return home. We are, however, looking forward to having online Q&A sessions with the directors and actors, and are moving some of the planned workshops, as well as the work of the Jury of our International Short Film Competition “New Baltic Cinema” online as well.
We sincerely hope this letter finds you well and safe, and that soon enough we’ll be able to meet again in person.
Festival and Art director
Dr. Gražina Arlickaitė