Here is a nice thing to look forward to: IFC Films says they’ll let independent theaters screen 200 of their films for free once social distance measures permit them to operate. That might not happen for some time, but once it does, rest assured, I will see Frances Ha on the big screen 35 times.
IndieWire reports that IFC is launching something called the Indie Theater Revival Project, an initiative to help independent theaters get back on their feet after forced closures in the pandemic. Starting on May 29, they plan to waive rental fees on 200 films that’ll be available to cinemas for the first full month they’re open. The waived fees mean theaters will pocket a bigger percentage of the ticket sales, plus there are some great movies on the docket, which will potentially draw more people to theaters.
Films include Boyhood, Frances Ha, Blue Is the Warmest Color, Hunger, Fish Tank, The Babadook, and The Human Centipede, which is not good, but probably worth seeing in theaters anyway.
Of course, it’s unclear when theaters will reopen. Though states like Georgia seem to be jumping the gun on restarting the economy amid the pandemic, others probably won’t let people into theaters for some time. And even when theaters do open, it seems likely that some folks (myself included) will be wary of watching a movie with a bunch of strangers when they could watch one at home. Then again, it would be pretty awful if movie theaters started going extinct, even though that’s starting to seem like a possibility—theaters were struggling even before the pandemic, and national agoraphobia might do them in altogether, at least for the next year or so.