Karlovy Vary teams up with Cannes, Venice & more for YouTube’s online film festival

Prague, Czech Republic – YouTube announced the creation of  “We Are One: A Global Film Festival”, an online-only event that will curate some of the feature films, shorts, documentaries, and conversations that would have occurred at the world’s various film festivals, cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis.

Along with popular festivals, such as SXSW, Tribeca, Venice, TIFF, Toronto and Cannes, the Czech Republic’s most important event of the kind, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), confirmed its participation.

Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal said, “We often talk about film’s uniquely powerful role in inspiring and uniting people across borders and differences to help heal the world. All of the world needs healing right now. We Are One: A Global Film Festival unites curators, artists, and storytellers to entertain and provide relief to audiences worldwide.

“In working with our extraordinary festival partners and YouTube we hope that everyone gets a taste of what makes each festival so unique and appreciates the art and power of film,” she added.

We Are One will support the World Health Organization and local relief organizations in each region of the participating film festivals, reports EW.

The free and online-only event is scheduled to begin on May 29 and run until June 7.

The actual lineup of films and other happenings that will take part have yet to be announced. However, SXSW and Amazon recently teamed up for an online film festival, and only 5% of the eligible films opted-in to be shown for free on the streaming service.

Originally scheduled to take place from July 3-13, the 55th edition of the Czech Republic’s flagship international film festival held in the Bohemian spa town of Karlovy Vary was cancelled after a sudden increase in new coronavirus cases in the Karlovy Vary region.

Attracting over 12,000 accredited visitors in 2019, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last year honoured the work of U.S. actresses Patricia Clarkson and Julianne Moore, who received the Crystal Globe Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema. The grand prize of the competition went to the Greek-Bulgarian film Father, directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov.

The festival is one of the most prominent and leading film events in Central and Eastern Europe, showcasing every year, since 1946, the movies of the most talented filmmakers and promising cinema talents from all around the world.