“The hardest thing to know right now is, with the economy, just who’s going to be willing to spend any marketing dollars in general,” said Ryan Watt, the executive director of Indie Memphis Film Festival. “Especially on sponsorships of events that are public.”

Indie Memphis is held annually in the fall and for now it is scheduled to go on as planned in October, though Mr. Watt anticipates this year they will have reduced sponsorship. Many uncertainties abound, and like many artistic organizations, they are pivoting to producing events online in the coming weeks and months — movie live streams followed by virtual Q & As, including a weekly movie club.

Their ticketing platform Eventive is working to incorporate a streaming component in the event that they are unable to hold the festival in person. “If we need to go virtual, then that’s something that we’d be prepared to do,” he said.

But going virtual can only soften the impact so much. This month South by Southwest announced an online film festival showcasing features that were supposed to be shown at this year’s conference. For a 10-day period (the exact dates have yet to be revealed), anyone with even a basic Amazon account can view the available movies for free. This is cool for viewers, but may be less of a great deal for the filmmakers who choose to participate; they’ll get a “screening fee,” according to the news release, but it’s not clear how much.

And from a business standpoint, filmmakers are understandably hesitant to accept Amazon’s offer. The prevailing question among several who were interviewed anonymously for an article in The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month: Why would any distributor want to pay money to screen a movie many people outside of a festival audience have already seen for free?

For the festival organizers this year, money has already been spent on things like venues, contracts, travel expenses and merchandise, Ms. Meadow-Conner said; recouping those losses is hardly guaranteed. As with South by Southwest, many organizations have been forced to reduce their staff — included in the Seattle International Film Festival’s cancellation announcement was the reveal that it would have to furlough the majority of its employees.