The Cannes Festival and film market have published new COVID-19 safety guidelines ahead of its planned in-person event this summer.
For the 74th Festival de Cannes attendees won’t be partying like it’s 2019.
The Cannes Film Festival and its accompanying film market have published new COVID-19 safety protocols ahead of the 2021 festival —set for July 6-17—and while organizers are confident the show will go on, expect a more somber affair than in Cannes’ past.
The new safety measures make masks mandatory indoors at all times —both for screenings and events — as well as social distancing measures to prevent crowding along the red carpet and outside market screenings. Cannes will extend its infamously-strict red carpet dress code to facial coverings as well, with guidelines mandating that masks “must cover the nose, mouth and chin at all times. It must also be a standard-issued (or surgical) mask, in excellent condition, with a filtration rate of over 90 percent.”
Following the so-called “stage 3” of the French government’s COVID-19 re-opening measures, which kick in on June 30, events with more than 1,000 visitors or delegates —a category that applies to the festival and the Cannes market —can take place but will require a “health pass” and strict adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols.
Festival pavilions – with their ever-present cocktail parties —will be allowed outside or on seaside terraces. However, according to the protocols, “dishes or plates resulting in the mixing of food between more than one guest is not permitted. When guests are seated at a table, masks must always stay worn until the first course is served.”
France is only just beginning to emerge from its second COVID-19 lockdown. Bars and restaurants have reopened for outdoor service and cinemas followed suit this week, though social distancing and other safety measures remain in place. Under stage 3, so ahead of the festival, France will lift night-time curfews and most other public restrictions, although nightclubs will remain shut.
The country is set to re-open to international tourists next month, though visitors will require proof of vaccination or a recent negative PCR test to be allowed in.
At this writing, travel from outside Europe remains restricted. That could soon change: with new proposals to re-open borders to tourists and other non-essential travelers from countries with low infection rates, a group that at the moment would include the United States, though not India or Brazil.
Article by: Scott Roxborough for THR
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