Cannes (AFP)

The poster with Spike Lee, the president of the jury, adorns the Palace: everything is ready or almost Monday for the 74th Cannes film festival, an edition to ward off the Covid-19 which had deprived world cinema of its meeting on the Croisette in 2020.

All that's missing is the famous red carpet, which will be rolled out Tuesday morning to welcome a host of stars from around the world, from Catherine Deneuve to Sean Penn, including Marion Cotillard or the Korean Song Kang-ho, who played the father in "Parasite", the Palme d'Or 2019.

For the local economy stricken by the pandemic, the return of festival-goers to Cannes on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea sounds like a resurrection, even if there will not be 40,000 as in 2019, but probably half as much.

For the first time, due to a health crisis, the festival has shifted its dates to the middle of July.

Beware of the sun and the heat when it comes to climbing the stairs!

The 2021 edition promises an astonishing crossover between stars in evening dresses, high heels and tuxedo and bathers coming up from the beaches.

For this renaissance edition after confinement and cinema closures, 24 films in official competition will be screened to thousands of festival-goers and to a jury chaired by New York filmmaker Spike Lee, whose filmography is rich in shocking works to raise awareness of to racism.

He will be surrounded by five women and three men, including the Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2019 jury prize for his sci-fi thriller "Bacurau", or the singer Mylène Farmer, figure of French pop culture.

The most publicized event in the world after the Olympic Games, the Cannes Film Festival will award its prizes, including the prestigious Palme d'Or, on July 17.

- "A beautiful trip" -

Side films, the unclassifiable Leos Carax will open the competition Tuesday evening with "Annette", a musical comedy with Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, whose scenario and the music were written by the American group of Sparks.

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Many selected films "have fever, a fighting force and, added to each other, will allow us (...) perhaps even more this year, to have a nice trip", according to the delegate general Thierry Frémaux .

The competition counts prestigious filmmakers, some already crowned in Cannes like the Italian Nanni Moretti ("Tre Piani"), Jacques Audiard ("The Olympics"), or Apichatpong Weerasethakul for his first film in English outside Thailand ("Memoria" ), with Tilda Swinton and Jeanne Balibar.

It also honors artists like the Moroccan Nabil Ayouch, the author of "Much Loved", whose film "Haut et Fort" takes the pulse of Moroccan youth, or the Russian Kirill Serebrennikov ("Petrov's Flu" ), whose chair should remain empty because it is forbidden to leave Russian territory.

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From identity questions to the mysteries of the couple, with also a strong presence in music - from the rap of the French from NTM to the Velvet Underground - Cannes promises a vast panorama of creation with in total, more than 80 films (more than 120 with the parallel sections).

If health concerns remain in the face of the virus which is still circulating, the security attack, already maximum in previous editions, will not be forgotten, according to the city of Cannes which has received reinforcements and will be monitored by all possible means, to on foot, on horseback, with dogs, on a motorbike ...: "The threat has not diminished. It is the same everywhere in France", underlines Yves Daros, director of the municipal police.

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Since the ram truck attack on the Promenade des Anglais on July 14, 2016 in Nice, significant investments have been made to secure the pedestrianized Croisette over one kilometer.

For the evening of July 14 and its fireworks, police officers with long weapons and a harrow will complete the device.

© 2021 AFP