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Cannes Film Festival Delayed Till July Due To COVID-19 Pandemic

By Michael Bamidele
28 January 2021   |   11:55 am
The Cannes Film Festival announced on Wednesday that it will move this year's event to July, due to safety concerns around the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The film festival which holds in May every year in Cannes, France, previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around the world. The organisers in a statement…
Cannes Film Festival

Cannes 2019 | Image: Alamy

The Cannes Film Festival announced on Wednesday that it will move this year’s event to July, due to safety concerns around the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The film festival which holds in May every year in Cannes, France, previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around the world.

The organisers in a statement said: “As announced last autumn, the Festival de Cannes reserved the right to change its dates depending on how the global health situation developed. Initially scheduled from 11 to 22 May 2021, the Festival will therefore now take place from Tuesday 6 to Saturday 17 July 2021.”

The move, while expected, will have a domino effect across the festival circuit. The Venice Film Festival is scheduled to kick off on Sept. 1. Cannes’ new dates mean there will be less than a month between Europe’s number one and number two festivals. The move sets up a potential confrontation between Cannes and Venice as the two events compete for the world premieres and red carpet star power.

Last year, Cannes was forced to cancel the festival amid the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Venice was held as planned, albeit with strict safety measures, including masks and social distancing.

The festival still went ahead with a selection announcement to celebrate the films it had planned to include in its prestigious lineup.

The Cannes Film Festival is one of the “Big Five” film festivals, alongside the Venice Film Festival in Italy, the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany, the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada and the Sundance Film Festival in the United States.

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