The iconic film festival has been postponed.
Multiple outlets confirm that The Cannes Film Festival will no longer take place during the scheduled dates of May 12-23. The decision to postpone was announced by the festival’s organizers on Thursday evening. The announcement also revealed that several options are being considered, including postponing the event until the end of June.
“At this time of global health crisis, our thoughts go to the victims of the Covid-19 and we express our solidarity with all of those who are fighting the disease,” the organizers said in a statement. “As soon as the development of the French and international health situation will allow us to assess the real possibility, we will make our decision known, in accordance with our ongoing consultation with the French Government and Cannes’ City Hall, as well as with the Festival’s board members, film industry professionals and all the partners of the event.”
They continued: “In the meantime, the Festival de Cannes lends its vocal support to all of those who firmly call on everyone to respect the general lockdown, and ask to show solidarity in these difficult times for the entire world.”
Spike Lee, the jury president for this year’s Cannes film festival, has welcomed the decision to postpone the festival: “I agree 100% with Thierry and the Cannes film festival,” Lee told Variety. “The world has changed and it’s changing every day. People are dying and France’s president has said, several times: ‘We are at war.’”
“The stuff that we love has to take a back seat: movies, TV, sports. So many things have been postponed and I agree with this move.”
France’s premier event was only ever canceled once in 1968 and postponed once after WW2 in 1946.
