I’ve been closely monitoring the Cannes/Coronavirus theory ever since I received the below email earlier in the week. It is a very real possibility that the film festival could very well be canceled this year. I’m also hearing Asian films are now all but out of the running to appear at the festival.
Sent from Berlinale-attending journalist to my email on Tuesday:
“From what I’ve been hearing around the Berlinale, and I hate to be the first person to bring this up, but with the current outbreak of the coronavirus in Italy I think there’s a possibility that the Cannes Film Festival [could be] cancelled if this thing further spreads. Remember that there’s usually a large contingent of Chinese industry people that go to Cannes. Will the entire country be quarantined?”
Nice mayor Christian Estrosi confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the Cannes region this morning, this automatically got Cannes to have to issue a statement hoping to settle down fears over the outbreak canceling the upcoming 2020 event. A spokesperson for Cannes says “it is still premature” for any assumptions on how the coronavirus will effect the 2020 Cannes Film Festival.
“The Festival de Cannes is monitoring carefully the developments and the latest guidelines provided by the local, national and international authorities regarding the coronavirus, and is in direct link with the Alpes-Maritimes’ administrative office,” the Cannes spokesperson. “As of today, it is still premature to express assumptions on an event scheduled in two months and a half.”
The spokesperson adds, “In due course and depending on the occurrences, the Festival de Cannes will naturally take all the necessary measures, aiming at ensuring the protection of all attendees and preserving their health during the event in Cannes, under the responsibility of public authorities, in particular the State and the City of Cannes. For now, the Cannes film Festival staff continues to prepare the event that will take place from May 12 to May 23, 2020.”
The COVID-19 outbreak is about to invade France this week-end (cases already doubled in the past 24 hours). In a week's time, the situation is said to attain the same levels as in Italy. Don’t forget, Cannes is right next door to the Italian border.
Also, to be clear, the Incubation time for the virus is 4 weeks. So everybody who got infected at the Berlin Film Festival will not know until at least 2 weeks from now. So, by then, we’ll know just how bad this really is for film festival culture.
Is a digital Cannes a possibility Cannes? Wouldn’t that be something?
This year’s Cannes Film Festival is set to begin May 12 and run through May 23.
Stay tuned …