The Cannes Film Market welcomes the world of digital cinema

Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow

The 73rd Cannes Film Festival did not take place, but the biggest cinema meeting maintained its commercial platform, the Marché du Film. Until June 26, 2020, the world leader in the cinema industry welcomes professionals with its first digital edition.

Publicity

This year, it's not so easy to find your way with the Cannes Film Festival. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, no red carpet, no climbing of stairs, no official competition, so almost no Palme d'Or. Because last week, the Festival announced that the short film competition would be held on an unknown date in the fall, with the award of the Palme d'Or for the short. The 56 officially selected feature films are obliged to be satisfied with a “Cannes 2020” label. Thus, the Festival affirms its decision to be resolutely on the big screen and seeks to support "his" films in other festivals and when they are released in theaters.  

► Read also : Cannes Film Festival: there will be a Palme d'Or 2020

And then there is the Cannes Film Market where other rules still prevail. To keep the atmosphere of the Cannes Festival as close as possible, here, most of the films in the official selection are available, at specific times, in virtual cinemas, for professionals in the sector, connected worldwide via the secure Marché du Film Digital platform, which proudly displays the famous Palais des Festivals in Cannes as a background image.

Among the one thousand two hundred screenings planned for the five days, there are, for example, Gagarin , by Fanny Liatard & Jérémy Trouilh, offered for professionals accredited as a world premiere at the Marché du Film, as well as Summer 85, by François Ozon, which will be released on July 14 in theaters in France, or the new documentary by Dieudo Hamadi, En route pour le billion , with a scheduled meeting on Friday June 26 in video conference with the Congolese filmmaker.

► Read also :  The new digital frontiers of the Cannes Festival 2020

Normally, this unmissable event brings together more than 12,500 cinema professionals: producers, buyers, programmers, distributors, at the Palais des Festivals to present and showcase nearly 400 films and projects in 33 screening rooms. This year, with almost 10,000 registrants, from around sixty countries, in the first digital edition, the influx is certainly less, but nevertheless remains enormous. Because the cinematographic world was terrified by the idea of ​​having to give up this crucial event for the film industry. Without forgetting that, among the registered, there are also this year professionals who do not normally travel to Cannes.

In 2019, American participants topped the list, ahead of the French and British. And among the 121 countries represented, there were also many African countries such as Cameroon, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sudan or Tanzania. This year, European professionals represent 40% of the participants and North Americans 25%, gathered around 250 stands and 60 pavilions.

► Read also :  Annecy 2020: the animated film festival shapes the future of cinema

For the moment, nothing has been decided, but it is very likely that the experience of this digital premiere will forever change not only the development of the Film Market, but also that of the Cannes Film Festival in general, with a more hybrid future. between physical and virtual. Because just before the Cannes Film Market, the Annecy Festival, the largest meeting in the world of animated film, brilliantly demonstrated that we could organize both the Film Market and the competition and the prize list in digital form. And this not at the expense, but at the service of cinema, industry and moviegoers around the world.

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Cannes 2020
• Cinema
• Culture
• France

On the same subject

Annecy 2020: the Cristal and the animated film festival shape the future of cinema

Cannes Film Festival: there will be a Palme d'Or 2020

The new digital frontiers of the Cannes Festival 2020