The international industry event that was scheduled to take place March 30 – April 1 has been cancelled to protect the safety of participants amid coronavirus threat. The decision was also brought on by travel restrictions across Europe.

Meeting Point – Vilnius (MPV), which takes place during Vilnius IFF, attracts hundreds of European film industry professionals. Unfortunately, many of them must now cancel their plans due to international travel restrictions caused by coronavirus. This means that filmmakers who were selected to pitch their projects during MPV will not receive desirable consideration from sales agents and other decisionmakers.

“The number of applicants for the Coming Soon session doubled compared to last year. We feel enormous responsibility for our filmmakers and aim to provide their projects with well-deserved attention from agents, distributors, producers and institutions. Regretfully, the travel restrictions impede our ability to do so,” said Alessandra Pastore, head of MPV.

The industry event has received a lot of attention in 2020, forging significant international partnerships with renowned film organizations.

“This edition of MPV was on track to be our best. It was granted Eurimages patronage, the European Film Forum was scheduled to close out the conference, the Innovation Day Lab focusing on Baltic distributors and movie theatres was set up in cooperation with Europa Cinemas, discussions for producers were planned with the help of the European Film Academy. This situation is truly unfortunate,” said Algirdas Ramaška, CEO of Vilnius IFF.

Moreover, filmmakers from countries with significant coronavirus outbreaks will not be presenting their work at Vilnius IFF.

“In order to ensure the safety of our viewers, we have come to a mutual agreement with filmmakers who reside in coronavirus hotbed areas to cancel their visits. During the festival, premises will be ventilated and disinfected. Festivalgoers will receive refunds if screenings are canceled,” assured Ramaška.