Reprinted from The Hollywood Reporter by Scott Roxborough on July 7, 2021.
The sheer volume and variety of new projects available at the Cannes Film Market this year is evidence that COVID-19 did not shut down the independent movie business.
While the pandemic closed cinemas, upended distribution models and added multiple layers of complication to film shoots — from testing and masks to on-set social distancing and quarantine protocols — the indies found a way to get their movies made.
“At the start of the pandemic we thought the real challenge would be a mass shortage of films but it all went pretty smoothly,” says Jen Gorton, executive vp of Sierra/Affinity (which had one of the biggest sales hits of last year’s all-virtual Cannes market in Lee Daniels’ The United States vs. Billie Holiday): “By early fall we were able to ramp back up on production and continue to deliver films.” …
