The world keeps changing, but Rifkin’s Festival, the 49th film written and directed by Woody Allen, continues its roll out. Having first played the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival last month, the film is now out in cinemas everywhere. It also has a new title – O Festival do Amor – which translates to Festival Of Love.

Here’s the official synopsis:

A film teacher leaves his beloved New York to accompany his wife at the festival in San Sebastián, Spain, where she advises a famous filmmaker. The heartthrob played by Louis Garrel doesn’t let go of his wife and, meanwhile, Allen’s alter ego goes around the city in search of new horizons, avoiding the false smile in which the artistic environment is immersed.

Here’s the Brazilian trailer

To coincide with the release, Allen did a new interview with Brazilian publication PlayCrazyGames. The full interview is great – Allen talks about his views on the state of cinema and making films during the pandemic. Interesting is that Allen confirmed that he pursued making a film in Rio, and that his producer/sister Letty Aronson actually went to Rio for meetings.

Yes, it was a real project, and I would love to film it there. My sister, who is one of my producers, traveled to São Paulo and Rio, and she found the city charming. I looked for an idea that was good to be done in Rio. But not an idea that could be filmed in any city. I wanted something that was about Rio, that the city was also a character in the story. As in “Midnight in Paris”, where Paris is also a character. That idea hasn’t come up yet. But if I think about something like that, nothing would make me happier than filming in Rio.

It also seems that sadly, Allen is not prepping for production at the moment. Allen’s 50th film has hit a couple of false starts.

I don’t think it would be fun to make a movie with everyone wearing masks, with a doctor on set, with everyone getting tested regularly. God forbid one person has Covid and production is stopped for weeks. That’s not how you make a movie! Besides being very expensive, it’s crazy! Making a movie is hard enough when everything is perfect and everyone is doing the right thing. But it wouldn’t be the same to work with the shadow of Covid in our heads. When the world starts to breathe again, I’ll go back to filming.

Read more at PlayCrazyGames.

Rifkin’s Festival will also be released in the US this month.