This year, due to the constraints of the state of emergency, the marathon was held on the portal filmas.lv, unlike 15 previous years, when it took place at the Riga cinema "Splendid Palace".
In cooperation with the Culture Systems Information Centre (KSIC), the event was adapted to the local time of every country in the world and offered nine consecutive viewings.
Viewers came from 63 countries around the world, mostly from the US, the UK, and Germany, followed by the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Estonia, Canada, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Australia, Spain, Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and others.
The most watched film was Jelgava '94 (2019), followed by an animated film session for children, consisting of various short films. Popular were also the revived 1987 classic "Fotogrāfija ar sievieti un mežakuili" ("A photograph of a woman and a wild boar") and a session of documentaries dedicated to the restoration of Independence.
Aija Bley's documentary "Mēs gribējām izmainīt pasauli" ("We wanted to change the world") premiered as the first Latvian film to be distributed only on the Internet. From May 5, the film is available on Vimeo, from May 8, on the “Shortcut” platform.
The National Film Center notes that the experience acquired during the Latvian Film Marathon on 4 May will be useful for organization of future online events.
