Sheffield Doc/Fest goes virtual

Sheffield Doc/Fest screenings venue The Showroom

UK trade event Sheffield Doc/Fest has cancelled its June screenings, conference and MeetMarket this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sheffield Doc/Fest’s pitching forums MeetMarket and Alternate Realities Talent Market will both proceed in June as virtual events, while film screenings, talks, panels, artists’ events and community-engagement activities will be presented as part of a series of weekends throughout the autumn.

Delegates who have already bought passes for Sheffield Doc/Fest will be contacted and offered different options, including a full refund.

“Doc/Fest is an essential moment for the city of Sheffield, for the film industry and for all the international guests who join us, and its collective character is at the heart of the festival’s purpose. We strongly believe that people coming together to watch, to talk and to imagine the world through art is a transformative experience that produces change,” said festival director Cintia Gil.

“Therefore, we will organise a series of programmes that will help us honour our mission as a charity, to serve our community as a space for collective experiences, to inspire and question the film industry in the UK and internationally, and to engage in an urgent worldwide conversation about ways of creating, and engaging with, cinema and art in extremely challenging times.”

It’s the latest in a string of industry events to be canned as the world battles with the coronavirus outbreak. MipTV in Cannes, Series Mania in Lille, The Banff World Media Festival and the LA Screenings are among those to have already been cancelled in 2020.