In the wake of SXSW canceling due to coronavirus fears and major pop culture and media events around the world following suit, all eyes are on Cannes, which is arguably the premier film event of the year, to see if the French film festival will go on as planned or not. Over the past week or so, numerous reports have surfaced about whether or not the French fest will cancel or stubbornly go on as planned. Now, thanks to an interview with Le Figaro (via Deadline), Cannes president Pierre Lescure talked openly about the organizer’s current mindset as Europe becomes a hotbed of coronavirus activity.
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The president of the Cannes Film Festival said that they’re “reasonably optimistic in the hope that the peak of the epidemic will be reached at the end of March and that we will breathe a little better in April.”
However, he added that the organizers are “not oblivious” and if the need arises, they will cancel the event.
Unfortunately, for Lescure and the other Cannes officials, they might not be given the choice. As we saw with SXSW, the decision to cancel an event of that size might not come down to the people in charge of Cannes, as the government supersedes their will. If the French government continues strengthening its regulations against public gatherings and large events, we could see a place where Cannes is told, in no uncertain terms, that it will be forced to cancel.
This all leads to yesterday’s reports that the Cannes Film Festival turned down the option to add pandemic insurance to its policy, which would have helped in case of a cancellation. For perspective, we saw how a canceled event might affect an organization with SXSW forced to let go of one-third of its workforce due to the devastating financial impact of shuttering its festival.
In response to those reports, Lescure said, “This offer was made to us about ten days ago, but it was totally disproportionate. We were only offered to cover ourselves up to $2.3 million (€2 million) while our budget is $36 million (€32 million). It was really peanuts. The company was clearly playing the bounty hunters and we of course declined this proposal.”
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That does change the narrative that was going around after yesterday’s reports, where fans were flabbergasted at the idea of Cannes officials turning down what seemed to be a big opportunity to recoup some costs. However, Lescure clearly is spelling out a situation where the insurance offered wouldn’t even come close to covering the costs, and therefore, wasn’t even worth considering.
Ultimately, we’re still two months away from the start of the festival. So, it’s far too early to cancel the event. That being said, with companies beginning to make travel plans and Cannes announcing its lineup in a little more than a month, decisions will begin to be made soon enough.
Cannes 2020 will begin on May 12. Hopefully.
