The Cannes Festival is the latest entertainment event to be affected by the coronavirus. Cannes has chosen to opt-out of a physical edition and unveil a selection of movies in early June in collaboration with other festivals to present movies. They’ve also decided to cancel a physical festival this fall.
“As of today, a physical edition seems complicated to organize, so we are going forward with an announcement of films from the (initial Official) Selection at the beginning of June,” said a spokesperson for the festival, confirming what Cannes’ director Thierry Fremaux said on Sunday during an interview with Screen Daily.
Cannes has decided to to organize “redeployment ‘outside the walls’ (of Cannes), in collaboration with fall festivals,” the spokesperson said, instead of having a virtual festival.
Cannes’ director Thierry Fremaux plans to announce the films that were part of the roster and scheduled to be released in theaters between now and next spring. These films will be given a “Cannes 20” label and the films that were selected for this edition, but pushed back their release date by a year will be considered for the 2021 edition. The “labeled” films will be featured at film festivals such as Toronto, Deauville, Angoulême, San Sebastian, New York, Busan, and Fremaux’s own Lumière festival in Lyon.
The selection process for next years festival will start in the fall.
The Cannes Marché du Film’s virtual edition is set to run June 22-26, alongside a U.S agencies-led virtual market. Its yet to be decided if the Venice Film Festival will take place and a final decision will be made at the end of the month.
