CineVegas Announces Hiatus for 2010
The Las Vegas Film Festival Puts Annual Event on Hold
Nov 8, 2009
CineVegas, the glitzy film festival held annually in June, is almost as famous for its lavish parties as its edgy programming. But even a Las Vegas film festival cannot survive on glitz alone, and organizers have announced that the event will not run in 2010.
Film Festival Feeling Economic Pressures
So what happened? “Given the current economic climate and the pressures it has created, we made the difficult decision to put CineVegas on hiatus for the coming year. CineVegas has become such a well-respected film festival, and rather than allow the economy to affect its level of quality we have opted to put the event on hold,” said the film festival’s president Robin Greenspun.
Artistic Director Trevor Goth added: “We are so proud that CineVegas has grown to become a premiere showcase for uninhibited filmmakers and a scintillating festival experience for our attendees …We are very sad to be announcing this hiatus, but it is our hope to keep the CineVegas brand alive and re-launch the festival once the economy recovers.”
Lack of Sponsorship the Likely Cause
The film festival’s 11th edition, which ran for five days from June 10 to 15, 2009, was already half the length of previous years. But this preemptive cost-saving measure was evidently not enough.
The large majority of film festivals require some kind of sponsorship to make ends meet, but sponsorship is also one of the first things that companies slash when times get rough. CineVegas’ primary backers, the Palms Casino Resort (which also hosts the event), Vegas.com and The District at Green Valley Ranch operate in tourism and retail, industries traditionally sensitive to recession. Although Greenspun was not explicit about the economic pressures CineVegas is facing, it is not difficult to imagine that there were just not enough sponsorship dollars to go round.
While the loss of the fest will not go unnoticed, it was probably a canny move on the part of the organizers not to push ahead. Putting on an under-funded, and thus almost certainly mediocre, event would only serve to damage the reputation that the festival has spent the last decade building up.
One-Off Screenings and Special Events to Fill the Gap
There is a modicum of good news, however. Even though the festival will not be running in 2010, it will continue to have a presence in Las Vegas with one-off screenings and special events.
Whether out-of-towners make the trip to Las Vegas for these kinds of small events remains to be seen – after all, it is not only film festivals that are feeling the pinch. Otherwise CineVegas fans will have to wait until 2011 to find out if the festival once again has the wherewithal to put on the kind of show that they have come to expect.
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