The global coronavirus pandemic may have forced the Cannes Film Festival to forego their 2020 edition, but they are now intent on sticking to their 2021 schedule, even with the recent move by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to move the Oscars to April.
Variety reports that both the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival will be sticking to their earlier 2021 dates, despite the fact that the Oscars date change has already made another award ceremony adjust their dates.
Quoting Cannes director Thierry Fremaux, Variety says that the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will be held in May, which is when the festival is usually held. Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, this year’s edition was first moved to June before the organizers were finally forced to seek out different ways to hold the festival.
Fremaux acknowledged that the Oscars had to move its award ceremony to April because of “exceptional circumstances,” but the festival director remained firm on the May dates for Cannes. Fremaux said it would be a chance for the festival to highlight the film community after the difficult year that 2020 has proven to be.
In an interview with Deadline, Fremaux also took the opportunity to talk about the actions the film festival is doing to further encourage diversity in the films it features, much in the same way the Oscars is planning to do so. The Oscars had recently announced that they are forming a task force that would come up with diversity and inclusion rules that filmmakers would need to comply with if they intend to compete.
Fremaux said that the festival took two films from Black film director Steve McQueen as part of its Official Selection. He said both films are especially relevant in light of the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd since they discuss racism and the violence that comes with it.
Fremaux also noted that there would have been a number of African films included in the 2020 selection, but that those filmmakers had chosen to instead wait for the 2021 selection. He also praised the selection of Spike Lee as the President of the Jury for the festival as it marks the first time an African-American has been named to that position for a leading film festival.
Whether the Cannes Film Festival will be able to successfully hold its 2021 edition on May still depends on the health situation with regards to the global coronavirus pandemic. According to the June 16 situation report from the World Health Organization, there are now 7,941,791 confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world, with 118,502 of those being new cases. Deaths caused by the disease are now at 434,796 people.