The 27th Oldenburg International Film Festival has almost the world’s first film and art event “presented through Pornhub”.
The original German festival, known for its eclectic programming, and the largest adult entertainment site on the Internet were about to become partners. In May, with the global closure of the coronavirus and film festivals around the world cancelled or evolving, Oldenburg Festival director Torsten Neumann announced that even if Cannes, Tribeca, Venice or Toronto cancelled due to COVID-19, Germany’s most important independent festival would perform, whether in local cinemas and online.
Impressed by Neumann’s determination and seeking a trail in the mainstream film industry, Pornhub, through Vice President Corey Price, proposed the platform as Oldenburg’s streaming partner. Oldenburg would decide on the movies while Pornhub, which handles 115 million views a day and had 39 billion exclusive searches last year, would handle online traffic to make sure there was no buffer for lovers of the art space in Los Angeles. , Munich or Mumbai.
“In the end, it didn’t happen, which is a shame in a way; it would have been fun,” Neumann says. Instead, Oldenburg discovered a less poignant spouse in the Berlin-based Pantaflix broadcast. through German actor Matthias Schweigh-fer in 2009, it would probably not be as big as Pornhub, however, with a presence in about 70 countries, it is not a minnow. to the profile of the Oldenburg festival.
“Or we’re offering special films to special audiences, it’s in our DNA,” says Rainer Knebel, pantaflix’s technical director.
From 16 to 20 September, Oldenburg and Pantaflix will offer a hybrid edition of the Oldenburg Film Festival to everyone. The occasion begins with the world premiere of Puppy Love, the first feature film by music video director Michael Maxxis, starring Hopper Penn (son of Sean Penn) and Paz de los Angeles Huerta (Enter the Void) alongside indie props Rosanna Arquette and Michael Madsen.
Other highlights come with Miguel Silveira’s American Thief, a youth hacker drama that combines fictional scenes with documentary footage shot in the 2016 U. S. Presidential election, the documentary Fishing, director Miles Hargrove’s account of the Kidnapping of her father in 1994 in Colombia, narrated through VHS Hargrove photographs shot dead. at that time when I was a child; and Buck Alamo, the first feature film by American director Ben Epstein, described as an “acid musical western. “
The films will be screened in two physical cinemas in Oldenburg (social distance will apply, as required by German law) and in six online virtual cinemas. Fans across Germany will be able to purchase tickets for individual screenings online, and some will be scheduled for the 7pm PST, an ideal time for Viewers in Los Angeles.
After the film, the online audience will be invited to click on a applause icon, opting for a scenario ranging from polite applause to a standing ovation. “We’ll translate audio clicks and everyone who watches, adding filmmakers anywhere in the world, will hear the sound of the crowd,” says Neumann, who hopes the feature film will give the audience the “true emotional feeling” of being in a live audience.
By design, online projections will not be on request. “You have to be there in time, in front of the screen when the curtain rises,” Neumann says. “Without preventing the film, without rewinding, without viewing time. It’s not as convenient as VOD because it’s not convenience that destroys cinematic culture. We need to confront our audience, and we hope they face each other, with movies that could disturb and amaze them. “
Director William Friedkin, who has spent a century of unexpected and disturbing film viewers, will be the subject of a retrospective of his career at this year’s festival. The 85-year-old pilot of classics such as The Exorcist, The French Connection and To Live and Die in LAis will not attend in person, but will participate in a Q&A consultation that Oldenburg will broadcast live around the world.
Neumann knows his 2020 hybrid festival style is risky. “I don’t know if it will work; we may just take our audience away,” he says, “but in Oldenburg we struggle to be different. We’re not going to give in, now. “
This story made the first impression on the September 2 factor of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.
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