15/04/2020 - The parallel sections cancel their 2020 Cannes editions. The Marché du Film should unfold online from 22 to 26 June

Directors’ Fortnight artistic director Paolo Moretti and Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson (© Aurelie Lamachère)

While the team of the Official Selection of the 73rd Cannes Film Festival, which was forced to abandon its initial plan for a postponement to late June - early July 2020 (because of the decision from French public authorities to forbid “large festivals and events gathering a large public at least until mid-July” in France), remains open to other potential options (read the news), Cannes’ parallel sections have just thrown in the towel.

In a shared press release, Directors' Fortnight, Critics' Week and ACID “acknowledge that the previously considered postponement to late June/early July is no longer an option” and announce “the cancellation of their 2020 editions in Cannes.”

“The health crisis we are all presently facing makes it impossible to anticipate the practical course of events” underlines the press release, which nevertheless hints at a kind of solidarity with the efforts of the Official Selection to find alternative solutions: “in order to support the whole film industry impacted by the current circumstances, each section, in consultation with the Cannes Film Festival, is looking at the best way to keep on supporting the films submitted to its 2020 edition.”

Also worth noting today is another piece of information extremely important to professionals of the film industry worldwide, as various sources indicate that the Marché du Film will unfold online from 22 to 26 June on a dedicated platform, with official details expected from Jérôme Paillard’s team by Friday 17 April.

(Translated from French)