‘The Movie Man’, A Kind Of Canadian ‘Cinema Paradiso’ And Underdog New Documentary For Film Lovers, Tries To Find Its Way Into Fall Festivals – TIFF And Telluride, Are You Listening?

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: The major fall film festivals — Venice, Toronto, and Telluride especially — may be fearing more by the day that the current combined WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are going to put a serious crimp in their plans for glorious, star-filled fests that also can have an impact in launching awards season (just today, MGM said Zendaya’s Challengers withdrew as the Venice opening-night film and its release moved to late April 2024 due to the actors strike).

With the clock ticking and August just around the corner, these fests have to start planning what life will look like without the buzzy boost of A-list stars and a feeling by distributors and studios that maybe they ought to second guess current (as yet mostly unannounced) participation with their awards bait films which could be moving all over the release map.

Following the shutdowns of the pandemic these festivals got their mojo back last year, and now appeared to be headed toward a full return to normalcy – that is until the picket signs came out.

Well I have a suggestion, particularly for Toronto and Telluride, in case they find themselves in need of something new, unaffected by the strikes, that just might become the kind of crowd pleasing word of mouth hit these fests love to “discover” and shepherd through the world.