Cannes Cancels Physical Edition, Will Host Screening at Fall Festivals

Red carpet of 2017's closing ceremony of Cannes Film Festival. Photo by James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock (8847998cy)

The Cannes Film Festival has decided to opt-out of a physical edition and instead unveil a selection of movies in early June and collaborate with several festivals, including Venice, to present some films. They’ve also ruled out a physical festival this fall.

“As of today, a physical edition seems complicated to organize, so we are going forward with an announcement of films from the (initial Official) Selection at the beginning of June,” said a spokesperson for the festival, which confirms what Cannes’ director Thierry Fremaux said on Sunday during an interview with Screen Daily.

Instead of doing a virtual festival, Cannes will organize “redeployment ‘outside the walls’ (of Cannes), in collaboration with fall festivals,” said the spokesperson. 

Fremaux plans to announce a list of movies that were part of the roster and scheduled to be released in theaters between now and next spring and the films will be given a “Cannes 20” label. For next year’s festival, the selection process will begin in the fall and the films that were selected for this edition and have delayed their release by a year will be considered for the 2021 edition.

The “labeled” films will be shown at film festivals such as Toronto, Deauville, Angoulême, San Sebastian, New York, Busan, and Fremaux’s own Lumière festival in Lyon. 

The Cannes Marché du Film’s virtual edition is due to run June 22-26, alongside a U.S agencies-led virtual market. It’s still to be determined if the Venice Film Festival will take place and a final decision will be made at the end of the month.