The 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will begin late on Tuesday after a year of absence at the French Riviera. The festival will be held between July 6 and July 17.
Adam Driver starrer Annette will be the opening film for the season, and it will enter the competition later.
The festival organisers announced that Bong-Joon Ho, the Korean filmmaker who directed the Oscar-winning film Parasite, and the winner of the Palme d’Or Award in 2019, will be the “special guest of the Opening Ceremony.”
Besides the 24 films in the main competition, and several others films in different sections of the festival, the organisers have introduced a new category called Cannes Premiere, which has been introduced to accommodate films that could not be entered into the main competition.
Cannes is the first major film festival to conduct an in-person event amidst the pandemic.
As per the festival’s guidelines, entry to the festival will be divided into three categories — red, orange, and green. Countries falling in the green zone will have easier access to the festival and will only be asked to take a simple saliva test. However, guests will be required to test every 48 hours.
Countries in the green category include Australia, South Korea, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Singapore and several European nations deemed as the safest.
The United Kingdom and the United States of America fall in the orange category. Guests from these nations “will also be able to enter France without quarantine and providing a compelling reason for travelling if they have been fully vaccinated two weeks prior to their trip,” according to the report.
Guests from red category countries like South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, India and Turkey “will need to quarantine and have a compelling reason to travel, whether or not they are fully vaccinated.”
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With assistance from a local hospital, a 300-square meter tent will be set up and used as a testing laboratory to screen for Covid-19. Tests can be booked online to reduce contact.
To promote a no-touch policy, digital scanning stations will be installed to scan the belongings of guests. While guests will be asked to maintain a distance of one metre, the fan zone in front of the venue will be dropped to reduce crowding.
Although no Indian film has made it to the competition, Rahul Jain’s documentary Invisible Demons will be screened under the Cannes for the Climate category. Director Payal Kapadia’s feature film A Night of Knowing Nothing, will be a part of the parallel event, Directors’ Fortnight.
The festival will be held at the venue Palais de Festivals and will be broadcast by Canal+ in France and partnering cinema theatres.