angeles and new york city as particular u.s. epicenters, led to further disruption of the awards season in january 2022. the 27th critics' choice awards were postponed to march 13, 2022, the same day as the 75th british academy film awards, while the 49th annie awards were delayed to march 12, and the 79th golden globe awards were held under strict covid-19 protocols with only hfpa beneficiaries in attendance. the ceremony had already been downsized into a non-televised event due to boycotts of the organization by media companies and creatives (including its regular broadcaster nbc) over the lack of diversity among its membership. festivals many festivals and events have been cancelled or postponed. postponements include the thessaloniki documentary festival, set to begin on march 5 and rescheduled for june 2020; the beijing international film festival, planned for april 2020 and postponed indefinitely; the prague international film festival, moved from late march to sometime later in 2020; the bentonville film festival, set for april 29 – may 2 and moved to august; the istanbul international film festival, set for april 10–21 and postponed to a later date in 2020; and the tribeca film festival. the cinequest film & creativity festival, a two-week festival in march, experienced low attendance during its first week and postponed its second week to august 2020. the 20th beverly hills film festival scheduled for april 1–15 is postponed indefinitely. the 38th fajr international film festival, scheduled for april 16–24 in tehran, has been postponed, with plans to organize the event in late spring. the 2020 metro manila summer film festival, originally scheduled for april 11–21, was also postponed after the decision to place metro manila (the epicenter of the covid-19 pandemic in the philippines) under community quarantine was announced, however, it was later cancelled. canceled events include the swiss international film festival and forum on human rights, planned for early march; the red sea international film festival, which was to be held for the first time in march 2020; the march 2020 south by southwest (sxsw), which would have included film screenings; the 2020 bfi flare: london lgbtiq+ film festival; nickelodeon's 2020 slimefest festival; qumra, the doha film institute's international directors' conference; hong kong filmart, a large film market event; the national association of theatre owners' cinemacon 2020; and lille's series mania television festival. the 22nd edition of ebertfest and the 44th edition of the cleveland international film festival were cancelled. new jersey's global film festival, garden state film festival, scheduled for march 25–29, cancelled their in-person asbury park-based festival. however, it will be proceeding with the original schedule in a real-time live-streaming online format. the 55th karlovy vary international film festival was canceled and postponed to 2021; its organizers later announced plans to hold an unofficial "54 ½" edition in november, but it was cancelled due to the reinstatement of restrictions in the country. the 2020 cannes film festival sent out invitations on march 6, despite france implementing limits on public gatherings beyond its scheduled dates; the cannes television festivals canneseries and miptv chose not to run, however, with canneseries rescheduling for october and miptv canceling its event. on march 19, the festival de cannes announced that it cannot be held on the scheduled dates, from may 12–23. several options are considered in order to preserve its running, the main one being a simple postponement, in cannes, until the end of june-beginning of july 2020. cannes' main venue has been converted into a temporary homeless shelter. some festivals, including tribeca, sxsw, reelabilities, tcm classic film festival, and the greenwich international film festival have created new online programming in lieu of having an in-person festival. the 2020 toronto international film festival is also planned to proceed at least partially online; on july 30, tiff programmers announced a much smaller than normal lineup of feature films that will be screened at drive-in theatre venues and online. within the industry, it is suggested that after the pandemic is contained and major events reschedule, the less-important business events and festivals may be more permanently removed from industry calendars, to allow more important events to happen, because they may be deemed unnecessary if no great effect is felt by their cancellations, and to ease finances of the industry as it enters a recession brought about by coronavirus-caused losses. the tribeca film festival and youtube worked with several international partner film festivals to launch we are one: a global film festival, an international online festival of films screening for free on youtube between may 29 and june 7. due to the unprecedented interruption of film productions caused by the pandemic, the locarno film festival in switzerland asked directors, including lucrecia martel and lav diaz, to select films from the festival's 74-year history for a retrospective that will be screened online and in physical locations. the toronto international film festival announced that it would make "masks optional" once attendees were seated for film screenings. the actions were criticized for creating a potential superspreader event as the social nature of the festival could increase the risk for covid-19 transmission. it reversed the decision within 24 hours, citing a surge of new cases in ontario. the oceanside international film festival screened virtually online in august 2020. the tribeca film institute, a fundraising and educational non-profit, suspended operations on september 1, 2020, due to "uncertainties surrounding our new reality." the tribeca film festival, which operates under the same parent company, will continue. the horrible imaginings film festival extended their usual three day event to seven days for virtual screenings in 2020. the provincetown international film festival and its associated non-profit laid off its newly hired ceo and eight other staff members in 2020 due to the pandemic. the san diego international film festival, held in october 2020, screened both online and on drive-in screens. in september 2021, it was announced that a person with covid-19 attended several screenings at the 2021 toronto international film festival. films affected included dune, bergman island and the humans. the san diego women's film festival held their last event in 2021 and folded into a "women's series" at the san diego international film festival due to infrastructure issues created by the impact of the pandemic. films