This week, Florida's Popcorn Frights Film Festival sent out a press release announcing that, due to the COVID-19 health crisis, it has rescheduled its sixth annual edition to October 1st-4th, 2020.
"Popcorn Frights is committed to being a part of the solution to help slow down the recent spike in numbers of COVID-19 cases in the state of Florida and across the country, and we remain committed to the safety of audiences, staff, and the community at large," the release explains.
"While the postponement is regretful and was not made lightly, moving the Festival from August is the safest thing for our audiences and filmmakers. We stand in solidarity with leading cultural institutions and other film festivals, as well as the CDC, by taking proactive steps towards combating the spread of the coronavirus pandemic."
"For six years, Popcorn Frights Film Festival has been passionate about providing a memorable and enriching opportunity to celebrate the best of international genre cinema," said Festival Directors Igor Shteyrenberg and Marc Ferman. "It is in this same spirit of friendship, and concern for our global and local communities, that we have decided to reschedule this year's Festival. We look forward to the day when we can gather again to share great films, community, and experiences."
In light of this change, Popcorn Frights has extended its submission deadlines and will be actively evaluating short and feature-length films during this time. The Festival accepts all entries through Film Freeway and the late deadline for submissions is August 16th.
Popcorn Frights is hosted in downtown Fort Lauderdale’s landmark Savor Cinema, a state-of-the-art theater which was originally built as a Methodist Church in the 1940s.
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