It’s beginning to look less and less likely that the Cannes Film Festival will actually find a date in June to be held, after postponing its original May date. At the time, the postponement seemed a bit iffy already, but in the days since the announcement, it’s becoming clear that the world just won’t be back to normal in June. And even if social distancing and public gathering regulations are lifted, international travel will be greatly reduced, as countries continue to keep borders guarded. Basically, Cannes in June seems like a pipedream.
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But that doesn’t mean that Cannes 2020 will follow in the footsteps of SXSW and Tribeca, by allowing portions of the event to be streamed online and juries to award films without seeing them on the big screen. At least, according to Cannes director Thierry Fremaux.
Speaking to Variety, Fremaux was asked about the potential cancellation of the festival and if that would force the organizers to seek an online alternative. And unsurprisingly, given Cannes’ reluctance to embrace streaming in the past, the Cannes boss isn’t interested in a digital festival.
“[For] Cannes, its soul, its history, its efficiency, it’s a model that wouldn’t work. What is a digital festival? A digital competition? We should start by asking rights holders if they agree,” Fremaux said. “Films by Wes Anderson or Paul Verhoeven on a computer? Discovering ‘Top Gun 2’ or [Pixar’s] ‘Soul’ elsewhere than in [a] theater? These films have been postponed to be shown on a big screen; why would we want to show them before, on a digital device?”
He added, “Directors of ‘films’ are driven by the idea of showing their movies on a big screen and sharing them with others at events like festivals, not for their works to end up on an iPhone. If all the festivals are canceled, we will have to think of a way to showcase films, to avoid wasting a year, but I don’t think a precarious and improvised alternative of Cannes or Venice — no sooner done than forgotten — would be the solution.”
As alluded to by Fremaux, his comments do seem to align with Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera’s recent dismissal of an online alternative to his event. Barbera’s words came after the announcement by the Toronto International Film Festival, another major fall film event, that organizers are preparing for a physical fest but also looking into digital alternatives. It appears that both Fremaux and Barbera feel that Cannes and Venice are on a different level than their festival brethren and shouldn’t be reduced to streaming.
As always, the situation is changing daily, so we’ll just have to see if Fremaux changes his tune as the weeks continue to tick by.