Coronavirus shapes Darwin International Film Festival

THE Darwin International Film Festival returns in 2020 but looks a little different to accommodate the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic

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THE Darwin International Film Festival (DIFF) returns in 2020 with the impact of coronavirus on the international film landscape making for a different event.

Running for 10 days from September 18 to 27, the festival will feature 10 films curated from the past decade of DIFF, four Australian cult classics and three fresh local films.

DIFF director Blandine Ruffo said this year’s festival would be one of the best with film fanatics and the public making the most of life without coronavirus.

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“We’ve decided to have live performances every night and really create an experience that makes it worthwhile to get out of the house and make the most of our good fortune to be COVID-19 free,” she said.

“The whole industry has been very heavily impacted, that’s why we use this opportunity to look retrospectively at programs.

“The whole festival circuit has been short-circuited so we’ve decided to focus on rediscovering old gems.”

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Ms Ruffo said the festival had looked at the pandemic for inspiration. “There are a few films which have an ironic tone – The Wolf Pack which we’re showing on the 22nd is a doco from 2015, way before coronavirus but it’s about a group of siblings that were raised in confinement, never went to the outside world and built up psychology and creativity through movies,” she said. “It’s a pretty funny segue to what people are going through now and how film festivals can be such a relief.”

DIFF runs from September 18 to 27 at the Darwin Deckchair Cinema.