The global coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the film and entertainment industry as the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival have announced that they are looking at alternative ways to stage the festival in September.
In a report by The Hollywood Reporter, the president of the Cannes Film Festival, Thierry Frémaux, revealed that they are looking to collaborate with other film festivals that are going to be held in the fall. These include the Venice Film Festival, the San Sebastian Film Festival, and the Toronto Film Festival.
While this move does not mean that the Cannes Film Festival is canceled, it does mean that there will be no physical edition for the Cannes Film Festival this year, as pointed out by Variety.
The films that will be part of this modified Cannes staging will be the ones that were already picked for Cannes’ official selection and that were already scheduled to have a theater run between now and next spring. If the partnerships push through, the films will be screened under the label “Cannes 2020.”
One of the film festivals Cannes is looking at partnering with, the Venice Film Festival, has already announced that they would push through with their original run of Sept. 2 to 12. But just like the Cannes Film Festival, organizers have already cautioned that this new edition would be different from previous stagings.
Venice Biennale president Roberto Cicutto already expects smaller attendance from foreign press and participants. They are also looking at digital alternatives that would make covering the event easier for foreign press participants. Organizers are also working with the Italian government so that they would be allowed to use cinemas, arguing that it would be easier to monitor six or seven movie houses as opposed to thousands.
It still remains to be seen whether the Venice Film Festival will actually be held, or whether the Cannes Film Festival will be able to screen their films there. This is because COVID-19 cases continue to rise around the world. A May 10 update from the World Health Organization shows that globally, there are now 3,917,366 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 61,578 being new cases. There are now 274,361 people that have died worldwide because of COVID-19. Of that total, 8,499 are new deaths.
The same update from the World Health Organization puts the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the European Region at 1,707,946 people, with 25,608 of that total being new cases. Deaths in Europe are now at 155,552 people, with 1,319 of those being new deaths.