Ljubljana - The new Covid restrictions that are coming into effect on Monday will affect the Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFe), which is due to kick off on Wednesday. Seating capacity is being halved and additional screenings are being added for the projections that have been sold out.

Under the new rules, public cultural events can be held inside venues with fixed seating provided one seat is empty between each visitor. The visitors will also need to wear surgical or FFP2 masks and show a valid Covid pass mandate along with an ID document.

As a result, seating indicated on the tickets will not apply, Cankarjev Dom, the organiser of the festival, has told the STA. Before the new measures, they could sell capacity seating, but now this is being reduced by half.

The films for which tickets have been sold out or where more than half the capacity has been filled will be shown at additional screenings. Unless otherwise possible, extra screenings may follow after the end of the festival on 21 November. The dates of new screenings will be released before the festival begins.

According to Cankarjev Dom, none of the announced guests have cancelled their appearance at festival so far. "We hope to be able to carry out the whole programme of this year's iteration of the festival, including talks, lectures and debates with guests to the greatest extent possible," they said.

However, the screening of Beanie (Kapa), touted as Slovenia's first Christmas movie, has been cancelled at the producer's request with the premiere moved to the next LIFFe in November 2022 due to the situation. Tickets for the film, which was to be shown in the children's section Kinobalon, can be exchanged or refunded.