The concerts skip. The curtains fall. And cultural events, from Série Mania to the Paris Humor Festival, have been canceled in series. Only the fate of the Cannes Film Festival, one of the biggest events in the 7th art, remains uncertain. While the official response from the institution will not be given until April 16, our colleagues at Le Point say, right now, that "the festival will not take place" .
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This 73rd edition was to take place from May 12 to 23. One of the twenty-eight members of the board of directors, who did not reveal his identity, told the weekly that "it will be very difficult if not impossible to select films from China, from Korea, Iran, Italy and probably from fifty countries, knowing that the actors and directors will not be able to travel. ”
This source continues, evoking the problem of overcrowding and bans on gatherings: "Showing films in a hall with 2000 seats will not be authorized and the slightest alert will worry festival-goers." For this member of the board of directors, it is also unlikely that Spike Lee, designated as the next president of the jury, agrees to "stay a fortnight in the midst of a crowd in an uncontrolled sanitary state" . We must add to this that the film market, the largest of its kind, which is held in parallel with the festival, implies that thousands of people wander in a closed place for two weeks.
Official response mid-April
Last week, the president of the Cannes festival Pierre Lescure told us to remain "optimistic in the hope that the peak of the epidemic will be reached at the end of March and that we will breathe a little better in April" . While it is now necessary to speak of a pandemic and the Paris Hospitals claim to have never been confronted with a phenomenon of such magnitude, this hope is becoming increasingly slim.
According to Le Point , in the event of cancellation, all would not be lost. And a postponement of the event could be possible after the summer. The Angoulême Francophone Film Festival is already held at the end of August and September is already occupied by the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto festival. Could that of Cannes make a place for itself? So many questions that should be answered on April 16. Or in the coming days, if the interest expressed by the press pushed the organization to reveal its decision earlier ...