France\u2019s Cannes Film Festival, arguably the world\u2019s most prestigious film festival and cinema\u2019s largest annual gathering, has postponed its 73rd edition due to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Organisers of the French Riviera festival, scheduled to take place May 12-23, said Thursday that they are considering moving the festival to the end of June or the beginning of July.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cSeveral hypotheses are being studied to preserve the festival, the main one of which would be a simple postponement,\u201d the festival said in a statement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cAs soon as the development of the French and international health situation will allow us to assess the real possibility, we will make our decision known.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Organisers had been extremely reluctant to cancel Cannes. For weeks, its organisers deflected questions and tried to push through its selection process. But as the pandemic spread through France, it became all but inevitable that a massive gathering like Cannes would be canceled.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
On Saturday, France\u2019s Prime Minister \u00c9douard Philippe ordered the closure of all restaurants, cafes and cinemas in France to increase social distancing and combat the virus.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Other major film festivals, including South by Southwest and the Tribeca Film Festival, have already been scuttled. But some hope held out that Cannes, taking place closer to summer, might yet survive.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Cannes has greater ramifications for the film industry, which annually convenes on the Cote d\u2019Azur not just for the festival\u2019s gala screenings but for the world\u2019s largest movie market. Every year, countless production and distribution deals are hatched in Cannes. Film executives fly in from all over the world and gather at the Marche du Film in the basement of Cannes\u2019 hub, the Palais. Every country with a film industry erects a pavilion at Cannes\u2019 international village.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The postponement is also especially painful for Cannes since it\u2019s coming off a particularly successful 2019 edition. Though recent years have seen intensified criticism of the festival\u2019s gender inclusivity and increased competition from other festivals like the Venice Film Festival, the 2019 Cannes featured the eventual Oscar best picture winner, Bong Joon Ho\u2019s Parasite, as well as Quentin Tarantino\u2019s Once Upon a Time \u2026 in Hollywood, Pedro Almodovar\u2019s acclaimed Pain & Glory and Celine Sciamma\u2019s celebrated French drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Parasite won Cannes\u2019 Palme d\u2019Or before its Oscar victory.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
But the international flavor of Cannes has worked against it this year. Because of the global spread of the novel coronavirus, even a virus-free France would have difficulty drawing \u2014 and keeping healthy \u2014 filmmakers, executives and press from around the world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Cannes, founded in 1939 while Europe was on the cusp of war, has been altered by tumult before. It began as an alternative to the Venice Film Festival, which then had become under the sway of Benito Mussolini. Its inaugural festival was canceled after its opening gala, the premiere of \u201cThe Hunchback of Notre Dame.\u201d The next day, Germany invaded Poland.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Cannes also came to a stop, famously, in 1968. Then, filmmakers including Jean Luc-Godard, Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut, Louis Malle and Roman Polanski took to the stage of the Palais to declare the festival over in solidarity with the student and labor strike coursing through France.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
This time, Cannes hopes to stave off cancellation and return in the summer. The festival concluded its announcement: \u201cA tr\u00e8s bient\u00f4t\u201d \u2014 \u201cSee you very soon.\u201d<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
France\u2019s Cannes Film Festival, arguably the world\u2019s most prestigious film festival and cinema\u2019s largest annual gathering, has postponed its 73rd edition due to the coronavirus pandemic. Organisers of the French Riviera festival, scheduled to take place May 12-23, said Thursday that they are considering moving the festival to the end of June or the beginning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2297,2306,2299],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-latest-news","category-showbiz","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13829,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13828\/revisions\/13829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}