Another film festival has fallen. Moments ago, the decision makers for the Telluride Film Festival have announced that the 2020 incarnation of the fest has been canceled. Obviously, this is due to COVID-19 and the complications that the pandemic has brought about. Seeing how a number of states have struggled with reopening and controlling the Coronavirus, having a large gathering like Telluride is just out of the question. To be sure, this is another big blow to the movie industry, and especially for the upcoming awards season. Clearly, public health and the desire to not have a ton of out of state folks descend upon a small Colorado town wins out over campaigning for an Oscar nomination, but it’s still a shame that we’re losing another festival here in 2020. The Hollywood Reporter was the first to break the news, with a statement from the folks at Telluride that you can read below. The fest had hoped to go in as planned, with some major changes previously announced, but as the days and weeks passed, it got less and less likely. By the time this afternoon’s announcement hit, it was all but a foregone conclusion. The New York Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival are officially on the clock now, though there’s some cautious optimism that they might still go on. We shall see, though, as COVID-19 has upended plans time and time again this year… Here’s the statement from the festival: After months of intense due diligence around physically holding an event, we’ve come to the heartbreaking but unanimous conclusion to cancel this year’s Labor Day celebration of film in Telluride. While there will be those who might say they’re not surprised by it, that this was inevitable, we beg to differ. It didn’t have to be this way. Until the past week or so, we had a very good plan to put on the SHOW safely. But with a seemingly unending number of new cases of Covid-19 and the national chaos around it, even the best strategy is threatened by this out of control environment. No matter how much many of us wear our masks and observe social distancing protocols, the pandemic has worsened rather than improved and the health and safety of you – our passholders, filmmakers, the people of Telluride and its surrounding areas – cannot be compromised. As you may know, we have […]