The first quarter of 2020 was a high point of Chris Hamel’s decade-long run as president at the Gateway Film Center.
The annual Academy Awards Gala party in early February was well attended. The South Korean film “Parasite” became the first foreign film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, extending an already popular run.
“ ‘Parasite’ was the highest-grossing international film we’d ever played at the Film Center, and one of our top-10 grossing films ever,” Hamel said.
Foot traffic at the theater, at 1550 N. High St. in north Columbus, was exceeding expectations, with Hamel estimating the theater was drawing 300,000 to 400,000 per year, a growing figure he had traced to a “diverse programming model (that) had really started to connect with audiences.”
Then COVID-19 hit.