The 2020 Cannes Film Festival has risen from the dead. And much like a zombie from a George A. Romero classic, it may appear to be the same at a glance, but if you look a little closer, you’ll start to see that this revived Cannes is missing a few bits and pieces. But even so, Cannes is back!
According to the festival organizers, a reduced form of the festival, dubbed 2020 Special Cannes, will host a number of the Official Selections from earlier this year (which were to be part of the year’s full festival that was canceled due to COVID) and will return to the Croisette at the end of October. In total, the event will feature four previews of films from the 2020 Official Selection, the short films selected in Competition, and the Cinéfondation’s school films. And since the entirety of the latter two sections will be screened, the event will feature a Jury (members to be announced later) that will award official prizes.
Pierre Lescure, President of the Festival de Cannes said, “We are delighted to see the Festival hosted by the Cannes City Hall in October, just as we were sad not to have held the event in May. Thanks to this collaboration, films from the Official Selection will now be shown on the Croisette again. This is our way to be in Cannes, alongside its population and all the professionals with whom we work hand in hand every year.”
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Thierry Frémaux, Festival Director, added, “The collection of four films from the Official Selection, the short film competition, the film school competition, and the dinners and meetings epitomise the happiness we’ll all feel to be together in Cannes in October! The films of the Official Selection are currently playing to cinema-goers in France, in Europe and throughout the world. It’s a great sign to see them making a stopover in Cannes, before we turn our attention to the 2021 season.”
The four features that will be shown at this year’s event will be “Un triomphe (The Big Hit!)” from Emmanuel Courco, Bruno Podalydès‘ “Les Deux Alfred (The French Tech),” Naomi Kawase’s “True Mothers,” and Déa Kulumbegashvili’s acclaimed “Beginning.” 2020 Special Cannes will begin on October 27 and run until October 29 and will be open to the general public.