“Jackie” director Pablo Larraín believes the effects of shutting down the movie industry for COVID-19 will probably result in a huge collection of films he thinks will be “lost.”
Speaking at a virtual Cannes Film Market event (via Variety), Larraín said the long-term effects that these film festival cancellations will have on the industry are unshakable:
“Those movies that were meant to be in those festivals have lost something because the festival couldn’t exist and that is very sad. It’s like a lost generation somehow,” he said. “Most will get to theaters and platforms – but there’s something that we’ve lost and will never recover. We need to live with that. It’s a sad story. I hope we get to learn from it and react better if there is another pandemic.”
He went on to state that all of these delays in film releases will likely result in other movies being pushed aside and less attention being paid to them when they do see the light of day:
“Cannes usually takes in 60 movies – if some of these go to the following festival in 2021 then the movies that were supposed to be in that slot miss out,” Larraín explained. “There’s still a generation of movies that are going to be hurt.”
Hopefully, this “lost generation” of films Larrain is referring to will manage to, somehow, finds their place in time, I get what he’s saying, it’s no doubt disconcerting to think that a whole year’s worth of cinematic gems will have to compete with another year’s slate, but maybe it will translate in 2021 being a great year for movies.