Film Festival Heat Brightens Arthouse Outlook; ‘Honk For Jesus’, ‘Gigi & Nate’, François Ozon’s ‘Peter Von Kant’ Make Holiday Weekend Debut – Specialty Preview

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Film premiere and headlines spilling from a trio of fests in full swing (Venice), just starting (Telluride) and queued up (Toronto) have indie exhibitors and distributors the most hopeful since Covid hit that a stream of new films could fire up the arthouse market.Tod Fields’ Cate Blanchett-starrer Tár (debuted to a six-minute standing ovation in Venice), Timothée Chalamet in Luca Guadagnino’s Bones And All (also just screened on the Lido), and Empire of Light with Olivia Colman, set to world premiere at Telluride, and a raft of others are slated for fall theatrical release.

A deluge of specialty films from Sundance and Cannes will also move into U.S. cinemas later this month.“Arthouse theaters are behind where they were in 2019, but I think this fall things will come racing back.

These festivals have the goods,” said John Vanco, GM of New York’s IFC Center.The arthouse market was already challenged pre-Covid but the trickle of new films, with many fast-tracked to digital, and scattershot marketing heightened woes.

A steadier flow of content alongside a just-approved Covid vaccine offers this slice of the market another shot, if red carpet festival fanfare can translate into some noise and dollars when films open in theaters instead of feeling like two different planets.Meanwhile, the informal end of summer, Labor Day weekend, features a hastily organized promotion by NATO that will see theaters across the country, including many arthouses, offer $3 movie tickets for all shows and discounted concessions in a bid to thank moviegoers and jolt moviegoing.