After the recent postponement of the 2020 Cannes Lions festival, from June to a contingency date of late October, the Young Director Award has announced that its own awards will go ahead this summer, but as an online event.
The YDA jury will carry on with its planned schedule of initial online judging to establish the shortlists. However, rather than a physical gathering of YDA jury members for the final round of judging, the jurors will also finalise the gold and silver winners via the online system.
Those winners will then be announced and celebrated during an online event which will take place as close as is possible to the original YDA date of 25th June. The exact date will be released within the next few weeks.
“We are experiencing an unprecedented global situation at the moment,” said YDA President, Francois Chilot, “one which will have a profound impact on this industry and many others. But, for our part at the YDA, we feel we still need to nurture and support those who represent the future of this business.
“By awarding the YDA within its regular schedule, albeit in a non-physical form, we are thinking of those young directors and the careers to which they aspire. Through film and moving image we can convey important messages of hope, friendship and sociability and, at these times, we need to gather together and celebrate all the creativity that we can. We care about these young talents, their producers and companies, and we know the rest of the industry cares too. We cannot get through this difficult time without helping them and, in doing so, helping each other.”
“We think that an important element of the YDA is to allow the young directors to be celebrated and congratulated in person,” says Karim Bartoletti, Chairman of YDA 2020. “Therefore, we are also planning a winners screening and celebration in October, but we are closely monitoring the coronavirus crisis and will adapt and adjust accordingly to make sure YDA 2020 is run in the safest way possible for everyone involved.”
Aiming to start with the physical celebration in the autumn, the YDA will be planning several screenings at various locations across the globe later in 2020 and 2021. However, as the nature of the coronavirus threat evolves, the YDA will monitor the situation and keep people updated on new dates and possible changes.
Entries for this year’s YDA are still open, and our Early Bird deadline has been extended to the 15th April. If you would like to enter, click here.
