Cannes Film Festival Postponed Over Coronavirus Concerns

The festival was supposed to take place from May 12-23.

Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone at the Cannes Film Festival.

(Photo Courtesy: Pinterest)

This year’s Cannes Film Festival has been postponed to reduce the spread of coronavirus. The event was meant to take place from May 12-23, but organizers said in a statement on Thursday that could not happen.

“Due to the health crisis and the development of the French and international situation, the Festival de Cannes will no longer be able to take place on the dates planned, from May 12 to 23”, the official Twitter page of the festival read.

“Several options are considered in order to preserve its running, the main one being a simple postponement,” the organisers’ statement said, adding that the festival might be held in late June or the beginning of July.

Spike Lee had been chosen to lead the festival’s jury this year, and would have been the first black person to do so in Cannes’ 73-year history.

Rumors had been circulating that the festival would be cancelled or postponed since 8 March, when France brought in restrictions on mass gatherings, limiting them to 1,000 people, to curb the spread of the coronavirus.