The Cannes Film Festival may have been canceled this year, but organizers still plan to honor the 2020 Official Selection via a three-day event.
The Palais des Festivals will host a ‘Special Cannes’ event, which runs Oct. 27-29 and will feature four films from this year’s Official Selection, as well as in-competition short films and the Cinéfondation’s school films. The event will be open to the public. Meanwhile, a jury will award the Palme d’Or for short films and the Cinéfondation prizes.
“The collection of four films from the Official Selection, the short film competition, the film school competition, and the dinners and meetings epitomize the happiness we’ll all feel to be together in Cannes in October,” said festival director Thierry Frémaux. “The films of the Official Selection are currently playing to cinemagoers 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.”
Organized with the Cannes City Council, the mini festival will open with “Un triomphe” (The Big Hit!) by Emmanuel Courcol, with star Kad Merad in attendance along with other cast and crew. It will conclude with Bruno Podalydès’ “Les Deux Alfred” (The French Tech), with the director attending along with lead actor Sandrine Kiberlain.
Also screening are “Asa Ga Kuru” (True Mothers) by Japanese director and Cannes regular Naomi Kawase, as well as “Beginning,” the debut by Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili, which won the Concha de oro for best film at the 68th San Sebastián International Film Festival.
Pierre Lescure, president of the Festival de Cannes, said, “We are as delighted to see the festival hosted by the Cannes City Hall in October as we were sad not to have enjoyed its company in May. Thanks to this collaboration, films from the Official Selection will be shown on the Croisette. This is our way to be in Cannes, alongside its population and all the professionals with whom we work hand in hand every year.”
David Lisnard, mayor of Cannes, added: “We wanted the presence of the Festival de Cannes in 2020 to symbolize our fight on behalf of the events sector, which provides a living for hundreds of families, as well as the cultural impact for our city. It was imperative therefore that the Festival show up in Cannes for this extraordinary event, which respects all the usual rules: quality screenings in front of a regular audience, in evening dress, on the famous red carpet.”
Elsewhere, Cannes has also confirmed the dates of next year’s festival as May 11-22.
Article by: Manori Ravindran for Variety.
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