The Cannes International Film Festival held in May every year is the most important event in the European and even global film industry. Last year, the film trading market here alone came record-breaking 12,527 guests. Look at the "Parasite" that won the Palme d'Or, as well as works such as " Hollywood Past ", " Pain and Glory ", "Rocket Man", " Les Miserables ", "I Lost My Body", etc. Almost every movie has become a hit movie in 2019.
This year, Cannes Film Festival will usher in its 73rd edition, and will be unveiled on May 12 as planned. However, with the rapid spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in Europe and even the world, whether the Cannes Film Festival can continue smoothly, whether it will be postponed, or simply cancelled has become a topic of great concern to the industry.
44 The contest film was announced on April 16
As of 20:00 local time on March 9, there were 1,412 confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in France (25 deaths in total), surpassing Germany and becoming the second highest number of confirmed cases in Europe, second only to Italy, which had the worst epidemic. Specifically, the small seaside town Cannes , which hosts the film festival, had already discovered the first confirmed case on February 28. On February 29, the French government announced that all gatherings of more than 5,000 people would be cancelled, and stipulated that the validity period of this ban was tentatively set at the end of May. On March 4, the MipTV International Television Conference, which was originally planned to be held in Cannes on March 30, was cancelled, and the Cannes TV Festival, which it was attached, will be postponed to be held in October this year.
In this context, it is definitely unrealistic to say that the Cannes Film Festival has no pressure at all. As early as the day the ban on 5,000 people was issued, the telephone hotline of the Cannes Film Festival Organizing Committee received interview requests from countless media around the world. Everyone wanted to know that if this ban was strictly implemented, would it mean that this year's Cannes Film Festival could not be held? But Aida Belloid, the official spokesman for the festival, clearly told the media that the government ban would not have a direct impact on Cannes because "we will never have more than 5,000 people crowded in a closed space at the same time."
Indeed, the main venue of Cannes, the Palais des Festivals, can accommodate up to 10,000 people at the same time, but it is divided into several halls. The largest Lumière screening hall (also the premiere hall for important exhibitions and competitions attended by the main creators) has more than 2,300 seats, which does meet the requirements of less than 5,000 people. However, anyone who has been to Cannes knows that during the film festival, the crowds were not only concentrated in a few screening halls, from the waiting team outside the theater with the chest and back against the back, to the media lounge, to the restaurants on the roadside, there were crowds of people everywhere. If you talk about the risk of the spread of the epidemic, it must exist.
On the other hand, Cannes is less than an hour's drive from the border between Italy and France. There are many Italian filmmakers, movie fans and ordinary tourists who take this opportunity every year. Now Italy has become the hardest hit area of the epidemic in Europe. Although the lockdown order has covered all cities and stipulated that it will not be lifted until early April, there are still many uncertainties in what will be implemented.
Cannes Film Festival posted on its official website that a press conference will be held on April 16 to officially announce the selected film.
However, Cannes obviously don't care about these. Last Friday, they issued a press release on the media, announcing that the original plan to announce the list of contestants in Paris on April 16, which will be 100% as usual; they even stated that as of that day, the guests and media registration applications received by the Cannes Film Festival this year were 9% higher than the same period last year. Mr. Thierry Formo, the head of the film festival, is also very confident. He told himself in private that he was familiar with the American media that he was completely unaffected by the epidemic and was busy reviewing and selecting films: "The great and unique Cannes Film Festival will be held as scheduled in May!"
Just two days after the email was sent, French Minister of Health Olivier Veran held a press conference on Sunday, announcing that the ban on 5,000 people was further strictly controlled, and the group activities of more than 1,000 people were banned. Now, the situation in Lumiere's screening room has obviously crossed the red line.However, the official Cannes spokesperson still firmly said in an interview with the media, "We are doing as usual."
Cannes' confidence may come from a gap left by the Minister of Health when announcing the ban on 1,000 people: the government will formulate a list, and even if more than 1,000 people on the list can be held as usual, provided that these gatherings are "benefiting the interests of France." It is said that this list is still in the drafting stage, and whether Cannes can be on the list and get exemption should be very critical in the next week. For various government units from the French central government to the local provincial and municipal levels of Cannes, they definitely don’t want to see the Cannes Film Festival be affected. To this day, it has long become a business card of French culture, and it can inject up to US$200 million in economic income into the Cannes local economy every year. However, all of this was cast a shadow on the positive test with Franck Riester, the French Minister of Culture who has always supported the Cannes Film Festival.
postponement or cancellation will suffer huge losses
. In the eyes of many American media, the cancellation or postponement of the Cannes Film Festival this year is just a matter of time. After all, the Southwest Southwest Film Festival, which was originally scheduled to be held in Austin, Texas, USA on March 13, has been stinging that there will definitely not change. However, it was suddenly announced that it would be cancelled last weekend, which made many professionals and ordinary audiences who were already ready to come to Austin and were extremely surprised. But in fact, in more than a week before this, many companies such as Warner, , Apple , Lionsgate Pictures, Netflix and other companies announced that they would withdraw from this year's southwest, and all the new film screenings that were originally prepared were cancelled. I believe it is the successive withdrawal of these industry giants that ultimately forced the southwest to the south to the south. After all, the film festival is just a movie, and if the movies don’t come, the film festival will definitely not be able to be done.
The cancellation of the Southwest Southwest Film Festival has a huge impact on the independent film industry in the United States.
The same is true. Whether Cannes will cancel or not may depend largely on the wishes of filmmakers, film crews and other industry guests from all over the world. Faced with the current environment where everyone is in danger, how many people are not afraid of risks and are willing to take a train or plane to the Blue Coast?
Assuming that this year's Cannes Film Festival really cannot be held as scheduled, there are only two ways to host: one is to announce the postponement like the previous Hong Kong Film Festival and Beijing Film Festival. If you postpone it, it will be another headache to postpone it. On the one hand, it is because of the venue. MIPIM, an international real estate event originally scheduled to be held in Cannes on March 9, has now announced that it will be postponed to the first week of June this year; and by the end of June, there is the Cannes International Creative Festival, which is currently underway. These two activities have been finalized for many hotels and venues in Cannes, so it is definitely not feasible to postpone the film festival to June. The following July and August are regular holidays for the French, and coupled with the high temperatures in Cannes, it is not suitable for holding a film festival. In September, it will be a car crash with Venice Film Festival , and then there will be the Toronto International Film Festival. The 2020 awards season will be launched at this time. The time is not suitable for Cannes to hold another film festival.
So, if the 73rd Cannes Film Festival in 2020 is cancelled and the 73rd Cannes Film Festival will be completely suspended, what kind of losses will the global film industry suffer?
Although this year's Cannes Film Festival entry list will not be announced on April 16, works including French director Leos Carax's "Annette", American director "The French Dispatch" and Italian director Nanni Moretti's "Tre Piani" are all very likely to be on this list. Once Cannes cancels, they may have to make other arrangements to wait for the fall Venice film festival to premiere globally.
However, there are restrictions on the total number of acceptable entries in Venice, and there will definitely be "squeezing" situations here.It’s like when the Southwest Southwest Film Festival was cancelled, many film crews that had been finalized to premiere there, such as "The King of Staten Island" and " Lovebirds" and " Lovebirds" all complained. Independent films like the American films have been premiering across the United States at the Southwest Film Festival in March or the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in mid-April, trying to find a buyer, and then go to small local film festivals and university campuses in the United States to accumulate reputation and popularity, and finally decide how to distribute them in the entire North American region depending on the situation. As soon as the southwest is suddenly cancelled, the first ring is broken. It is said that you will start over again after waiting for the next year, but there will be a movie for the next year. A movie marked 2020 is usually difficult to accept by the 2021 film festival.
Just canceling a Southwest Southwest Film Festival will have such a chain effect. If Cannes is also cancelled, the consequences will be even more unimaginable. Peter Bart, a veteran American film journalist, recently mentioned in his column that a senior industry insider revealed to him that if Cannes is cancelled this year, the global independent film industry is expected to suffer up to 70% of its economic losses.
Speaking of the possible losses caused by postponing or cancellation of movie-related activities, you might as well take a look at the latest James Bond movie "007: No time to die".
MGM Films, which is responsible for the production and distribution of the film, suddenly announced on March 4 that it would push its global premiere on April 10 to November this year in one breath. According to the Hollywood Reporter, doing so could cause up to $50 million in economic losses. This is mainly because the company has invested a lot of advertising expenses in advance and has done a round of publicity for the film, including the TV commercials placed on the "Super Bowl" in February, as well as the theme song promotion activities. But by September and October, we will definitely have to promote it again. This second promotional fee is the loss caused by the revision.
Daniel Craig recorded " Saturday Night Live "
The most ridiculous thing about the hero Daniel Craig may be the experience of the hero. He was participating in the rehearsal of Saturday Night Live when news of the postponement came. He is the guest host of this episode of this highly popular variety show entertainment program in the United States. He originally wanted to take this opportunity to promote his last appearance in Bond , but this mutation occurred. "Saturday Night Live" could not temporarily adjust the guest host, and Craig had no time to think too much, so he could only continue to attend the meeting...
Of course, MGM must have undergone complicated actuarials, and considered all factors. If it was confirmed that if it was released in April, the losses would be even more serious. After all, the production cost of this film is basically the same as the previous film "007: Ghost Party ", up to 250 million US dollars. Moreover, 007 is different from Disney blockbusters like " Mulan ", which still remains unchanged until now. Judging from the global box office of the previous 007 movies , North America only accounts for about 30%, and the highlight is still around the world, including China and Italy. With all theaters closed in these two countries, if the film continues to be released normally, it is still a question whether the final box office can be guaranteed to be without losing money.
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