The annual Cannes International Film Festival, to be held later this year, could get cancelled, owing to the spread of coronavirus, Hollywood Reporter quoted the festival president Pierre Lescure as saying.
Lescure, speaking to a French newspaper Le Figaro on Wednesday, said that the organisers could skip this year’s edition. Hollywood reporter quoting him from the French paper, said: “We remain reasonably optimistic in the hope that the peak of the epidemic will be reached at the end of March and that we will breathe a little better in April. But we are not oblivious. If [the situation does not improve], we’ll cancel.”
The festival is scheduled to open on May 12 with the lineup being announced on April 16. In the said interview, Lescure accepted that Cannes festival was not insured against the loss of revenue that would result from the cancellation as the mega film event is not covered by Cannes’ insurance policy.
The news of a possible cancellation comes close on the heels of actual cancellations — on Wednesday, a leading European festival, Series Mania, offering the cream of upcoming streaming and television series, got cancelled because of the coronavirus epidemic. The gathering, which draws more than 80,000 people to the northern French city of Lille, was scheduled to begin on March 20. The famous Louvre museum in Paris on Monday announced that it would restrict entry to the world’s most visited museum as concerts were cancelled across France because of new coronavirus.
Hollywood actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive for coronavirus in Australia, where the Oscar-winning actor had been stationed for the shoot of his new film on the life of American singer Elvis Presley. American singer Miley Cyrus to cancelled her bushfire aid concert due to the same reason. She was scheduled to perform in Melbourne on March 13.
