More than three days, And after a year of absence due to the pandemic of COVID 19, The Cannes Film Festival returns, but taking drastic health measures to ensure the safety of all festival -goers.
The biggest film party in the world will therefore take place. Like each edition, there will be very beautiful films for each edition in the various sections of the festival, some of which are eagerly awaited, as Annette The musical made by Leos Carax, which will be presented at the opening and in competition in the official selection, The hero by Asghar Farhadi, whose film The customer had won the prizes during the 2016 edition of the best actor and the best script (without forgetting the Oscar for the best film in a foreign language in 2017), Benedetta by Paul Verhoeven, High and strong of Nabil Ayouchfirst Moroccan fiction feature to compete for the golden palm and of course the closing film Oss 117: red alert in black Africa, Directed by Nicolas Bedos.
Jodie Foster, Matt Damon, Isabelle Huppert, Marco Bellocchio and Steve McQueen and a surprise guest, whose name has not yet been unveiled, will also be in “appointment” … at the Cannes Festival. Festival -goers will be invited to listen to and exchange with these prestigious guests who will share with them some secrets of their work and their passion for cinema.
Director and actress twice Oscarized, Jodie Foster, guest of honor of the opening ceremony, will receive a palm of gold of honor on July 6, on the eve of her meeting with the public.
Each year since 2013, I am happy and impatient to cover the Cannes Film Festival, and to live for a few days its magical and very particular atmosphere. I am passionate about cinema, and the Cannes Film Festival is the major cinema event not to be missed. In 2020, my disappointment had been very great when the 73th edition had been canceled, but it was impossible to do otherwise. For months, I wondered if I would have the chance to participate in the 2021 edition if it took place. I had of course made my request for accreditation, but doubt persisted. However, I had lost all hope when on June 9, France classified Tunisia in the orange zone and had made conditions to travel that I could not fulfill. Besides, I was wondering who, apart from a few Europeans and American, could attend, since most countries were classified in the orange zone and that in these countries, rare were those which had been vaccinated.
But a few days ago, the Cannes Film Festival sent all the accredities, residing in the orange zone, a certificate of travel in France for “major events”.
What a nice surprise!
It was necessary to organize almost in an emergency, especially since it was necessary to be on the spot a week before the opening of the festival, because of the seven days of quarantine compulsory for any non -vaccinated person.
Concerned about the smooth running of this 2021 Cannes edition and the health of all festival -goers, the festival management has established very strict health rules and procedures.
To access the festival, each festival-goer will have to present one of the following three supporting documents for non-contamination to COVVI-19:
- A certificate of a complete vaccine scheme of a vaccine recognized by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
- The proof of acquired immunity, by presenting a positive RT-PCR or antigenic test, dating from at least 15 days and less than 6 months.
- A negative PCR or antigenic test of less than 48 hours (to be renewed every 48 hours for the duration of the festival). However, in order to facilitate access to tests, a laboratory dedicated to high capacity will be available to festival -goers in the immediate vicinity of the palace, it will offer PCR tests, the results of which will be sent by email within 6 hours. These tests are free for all festival -goers.
In addition, in the Palais des Festivals, all measures have been taken so that everyone can circulate freely and safe:
- The air conditioning installations were audited and recognized as compliant for the reception of the public during the pandemic period. They will operate 24 hours a day to allow continuous air renewal.
- The cleaning procedures will be reinforced, and the contact points will be disinfected daily with virucidal products.
- The close contacts and the handling of objects will be limited thanks in particular to the generalization of the dematerialized ticket office to all the sessions, and the transfer on digital media of the majority of publications.
- In order to limit the queues in front of the rooms, all the festival sessions are now accessible on ticket office with online pre-reservations. As soon as a place has been allocated for a session, it is guaranteed, and a time slot access to the room is indicated on the ticket.
Obviously, the mask will be compulsory throughout the festival zone and everyone is asked to respect other barriers.
In addition, a medical unit will be permanently present in the festival zone to assist the people who need it (COVID symptoms or others) and an online medical concierge service, accessible 24/24 and 7/7, will allow access to bilingual and free teleconsultations.
Of course, all these measures are reassuring, and in time of pandemic, health is everyone’s priority. But will they have an impact on the course, atmosphere and identity of the festival? As for previous years, will there be a crowd at the festival?
Will the seven days of quarantine and the PCR tests every two days will some professionals to make the trip?
Regarding access to the rooms, I am very happy on the one hand that the festival finally found a solution to the long hours that we lost in the queues, but on the other hand, I deplore it a little. It is obvious that passing up to two hours and more to wait, and sometimes without even being able to access a projection, is not pleasant and waste a lot of time, but often it was an opportunity to get to know other festival -goers, journalists or cinema professionals, to discuss, to comment and criticize films, to make predictions…. These moments spent with strangers, from all the countries of the world, were not only very pleasant, but also very interesting and made it possible to have different points of view and sometimes even to better understand the context of a film when explained by a person with his nationality. Will this conviviality also be present during this edition without queues?
The festival has announced that paper publications will be reduced. Will the usual cinema magazines or not? Film press files? Daily projections programs? Will there be a catalog for this edition? I hope yes. I like leafing through it, I like to read the presentations of each film, I like to annotate them, write in pencil there my impressions … Since 2013, I keep the catalogs of each edition. I collect them. They represent a little what remains after the end of an edition. They allow in some ways to perpetuate the memory. I consult them from time to time when I want to remember a film …
Neïla Driss
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