What has been hinted at and speculated about for weeks now is official — the 2021 Cannes Film Festival is officially no longer a spring event, as it moves into the middle of summer over concerns about COVID-19.
According to the event’s organizers, this year’s Cannes Film Festival is no longer going to happen in mid-May and will instead begin on July 6, running until July 17. Obviously, you probably still should just use a pencil to write those dates down on your calendar, as it’s been incredibly difficult to predict what might happen even just a few weeks in the future. However, it’s clear that the organizers of Cannes are not willing to cut it as close as they did in 2020, where they refused to move dates and were optimistic everything would be fine by spring. As we all know, that didn’t happen (not even close) and the festival was eventually canceled.
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So, at this point, we can just hope that everything works out and Cannes can happen in July, as scheduled. But we definitely shouldn’t be surprised if, closer to that date, more changes might have to be made. However, what those changes might be is still anyone’s guess. There have been reports that organizers aren’t interested in delaying as far as August or September, where the festival would begin to overlap with events like Venice and TIFF. With its current July date, Cannes still gets to be a premier destination for folks hoping to debut their projects ahead of the always-busy fall festival season.
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That said, even if everything goes to plan, no one should expect a fully normal Cannes in 2021. By July, it’s highly unlikely that the world will be back to “normal.” Instead, the event will likely be a smaller affair, minus the huge crowds that normally gather to see all the A-list filmmakers and stars. But we all know that Cannes sure does love its glitz and glamour, so it wouldn’t be shocking to see some sort of red carpet and public screenings to be happening at the event.
For those keeping track, you can probably expect some news about Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” soon enough, if these dates hold, as it’s been long speculated that the film will debut at Cannes (though it was part of last year’s Official Selection, already). And yes, it seems as if Spike Lee is still excited about being the Jury president.
So, for now, you can pencil in Cannes for July 6-17.