The coronavirus pandemic has canceled events around the world and forced a transition to online substitutes to take their place. Musicians are taking concerts online, with some even creating new concerts from home, while events like Tokyo Games Show have promised an online variant on the show to take place of the physical show at Makuhari Messe. This trend has been replicated in other countries around the world, especially with film festivals, as many have chosen to operated online via streaming (for example, Amazon collaborated with SXSW for a shortened programmer which streamed on their service). Another festival taking this direction is the Japan Cuts Film Festival, a yearly US film festival dedicated to Japanese cinema which is now promising to operate its 2020 program online via streaming.

In normal times, the Japan Cuts Film Festival has been a yearly event that takes place in New York that brings a selection of the most popular and most well-regarded cinema of the previous year, alongside some classic films, to cinema screens in the city for 2 weeks. Last year’s festival brought The Journalist, Dance With Me, The Legend of the Stardust Brothers, and more to cinemas for a limited time. While the physical event can no longer take place, in some ways this democratizes access to film for those without the means or ability to visit New York, as the promised online event will allow anyone in the United States to stream this year’s selection of films.

The lineup for the event has yet to be announced and will come next month, with the first film in this year’s line-up being announced as Shinichiro Ueda’s follow-up to the indie hit One Cut of the Dead, Special Actors. Not only that, the director will be conducting an online Q&A to coincide with the film.

The Japan Cuts Film Festival 2020 is set to take place online between July 17th and July 30th, and further news for the event can be found over at the Japan Society website.