Cannes Film Festival Officially Cancelled Due to Coronavirus Pandemic

Cannes Film Festival has been officially canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The news comes [...]

By Aaron Perine

Cannes Film Festival has been officially canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The news comes straight from the festival's official account. They tweeted, "Due to the health crisis and the development of the French and international situation, the Festival de Cannes will no longer be able to take place on the dates planned, from May 12 to 23." That is quite a blow for organizers who thought there was hope to still have the famous festival despite the closing of more and more venues by the day.

Organizers are currently hoping that the 2020 edition of the festival can still go on at a later date, but that is all up in the air at this point. Some of them are considering July as a possible reschedule date, but other options are being weighed as well. The French Government and Cannes' City Hall have been in touch with organizers as they try to get a handle on the coronavirus situation in their country. Cannes officials have also thrown their support behind the general lockdown measures the country has taken.

Eyes turn to the Marche du Film, a film market that runs concurrently with the Cannes festival. The Marche announced plans for a digital market to supplement the physical event for people who couldn't attend due to coronavirus fears. But, now it looks ever more likely that the online component will follow suit with Cannes' new dates, whatever those happen to be. CAA agency has also floated some ideas for an alternative virtual market for companies to pitch projects and screen films in the event a cancelation happened.

Just last week, the organizers sounded so hopefully for Cannes' prospects. "Let's say that those who are worried are worried because they look at the month of May with the eyes of March 12," Thierry Fremaux told Le Point. "But the festival is in two months, and by then, we expect that the situation will be different and that the epidemic, we hope, will have subsided!" The outlet reported last week that Cannes was unlikely to take place and now, that speculation is a fact that the entertainment world will have to face.

Are you surprised that the management decided to cancel the festival? Let us know in the comments!

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