The Cannes Film Festival will not take place in July, at least not in its "initial form". While the possibility of a festival in June had been considered by its organizers, the speech of Emmanuel Macron, who announced Monday evening the cancellation of public events until mid-July, buried this option.

"Following the declaration of the President of the Republic of Monday April 13, we have taken note that the postponement envisaged at the end of June, beginning of July for the 73rd edition of the Cannes International Film Festival is no longer possible on this date", declare the organizers in a press release. "It now seems difficult to think that the Cannes Festival can be organized this year in its initial form."

Nevertheless, the organizers do not give up celebrating cinema. They are considering all "contingencies" to make the films of the 2020 edition exist "in one way or another". They will specify "quickly" the forms that the demonstration could take.

Could the 2020 edition, of which Spike Lee was to be the president of the jury, turn into a meeting on the Internet? Thierry Frémaux swept the idea on April 7 in an interview with Variety. "For Cannes, its soul, its history, its impact, it is a model that could not work," explained the general delegate.

A week earlier, on April 7, the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the second cinema event in France which was to take place from June 15 to 20, had announced that its 2020 edition was canceled. The organizers had announced plans to "propose a draft version of Annecy 2020 online that would allow access to works, as well as exclusive and unpublished content, despite the circumstances".

With AFP and Reuters

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