The festival rewrites its rules: this year the jury will not watch behind closed doors
Organisers are defending the contested decision as a step towards transparency.
Under the new rules the jury will watch the films in the auditorium, with the paying audience. The organisers present it as transparency; the objectors argue the room’s reaction will end up in the voting.
Behind the decision sits last year’s row, when an award decided after a closed screening went to a film the audience had booed.
The institution’s statement is short and carefully written. Between the lines you can read the effort not to feed the story.
What changes
Someone in the room and someone watching a screen are not seeing the same work. That difference explains most of the argument on its own.
The point the critics split on is not the work itself, but which tradition it belongs to.
The objections
For anyone who knows the earlier work this turn is not a surprise. What surprises is how late the attention arrived.
This year the rule runs as a trial. The festival will review the results at the end of the season and decide whether to make it permanent.
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