Actor Stellan Skarsgård and the director of the Cannes Film Festival Thierry Frémaux (in the background) at the prémiere of Last Words during the Cinema Ritrovato Festival in August 2020. The film was scheduled to be presented at Cannes before the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 73rd annual Cannes Film Festival was scheduled to take place from 12 to 23 May 2020.[2] On 13 January 2020, Spike Lee was named as the president of the Jury.[3] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, festival management announced on 14 April 2020 that the festival could not be held in its "original form", with alternative means of observing the festival being explored.[4] It was cancelled for the first time since 1968.
Earlier, festival management considered holding the festival in June or July,[5] after not cancelling the event.[6] In mid-March, the festival's main venue, the Grand Auditorium Louis Lumière, was converted into a temporary homeless shelter.[7] In May 2020, it was announced that no physical edition of the festival would take place,[8] but a revised Official Selection of films was confirmed on 3 June 2020.[9][10][11] Before announcing the list of films from the official selection, Thierry Frémaux the director of the Cannes Film Festival, said in an interview that he was talking with Spike Lee and also was hoping to have him as president of the jury on the 2021 edition. He also confirmed that Lee's film Da 5 Bloods was supposed to be the return of Netflix to the red carpet in the Out of Competition category.[12]
In September, organizers announced that a limited outdoor festival, featuring screenings of four official selection films, the short film competition and the Cinéfondation Selection would take place on the Croisette from 27 to 29 October.[13] The Critics' Week program also launched a free online screening of its short film selections in October.[14]
Official sections
The Official Selection has been divided in sub-categories, as directors or genres, not as competitors.[15][16][17]
The Faithful (or at least selected once before)
The Newcomers
Omnibus Film
The First Features
Documentary Films
Comedy Films
Animated Films
Short Films Competition
The films selected for the short film competition were announced on 19 June, a few weeks after the rest of the official selections.[18] Despite the cancellation of the overall festival, the short films were announced with an indication that the competition would still proceed in the fall, with the exact dates and jury members to be named at a later date; in September, it was announced that the short films would be screened as part of the special outdoor screening series on the Croisette in October.[13]
The Short Films and Cinéfondation Jury composed of Damien Bonnard, Rachid Bouchareb, Claire Burger, Charles Gillibert, Dea Kulumbegashvili and Céline Sallette, has awarded the 2020 Prizes of the Cinéfondation film school competition on 28 October 2020 on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière as part of “Cannes 2020 Special”. The First Prize was awarded to Ashmita Guha Neogi for the film Catdog, the Second Prize was awarded to Yelyzaveta Pysmak for the film My Fat Arse and I and the Joint Third Prize was awarded to Lucia Chicos for Contraindications and Elsa Rosengren for I Want to Return Return Return.[20]
Cannes Classics
The full line-up for the Cannes Classics section was announced on 17 July 2020.[21]
Independent sections
Critics' Week
The following films have received a special and official label, delivered by the Critics' Week:
Directors' Fortnight
A full Directors' Fortnight selection could not be announced due to it being incomplete when the festival was cancelled. However, two titles were announced in July 2020 so that they could utilize the Director's Fortnight label.[22]
ACID
The following films have received a special and official label, delivered by the ACID (Association for the Distribution of Independent Cinema).
The ACID Trip #4 program, which should have been dedicated to young Chilean cinema, has been postponed to the next edition, in 2021.
References
^"Cannes 2020 Is Back! Canceled Festival Is Revived With An October "Special" Event". Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
^"Cannes Film Festival Sets Dates for 2020". Variety. 14 June 2019. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
^"Spike Lee Makes History as Cannes Film Festival 2020 Jury President". IndieWire. 14 January 2020. Archived from the original on 8 April 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
^"Cannes film festival says 2020 edition cannot go ahead 'in original form'". The Guardian. 14 April 2020. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
^"Cannes Jury President Spike Lee Responds to Festival Postponement". Variety. 19 March 2020. Archived from the original on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
^Stolworthy, Jacob (14 March 2020). "Cannes Film Festival update: Event not cancelled but unlikely to take place, according to insider". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
^"Cannes opens its doors to homeless after coronavirus delays film festival". Reuters. 24 March 2020. Archived from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
^"Cannes Rules Out Physical Edition For Now, Will Host Screenings at Fall Festivals". Variety. 10 May 2020. Archived from the original on 18 June 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
^"Cannes Will Announce Official Selection in June, but There'll Be No Physical Edition This Year". IndieWire. 10 May 2020. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
^Buchanan, Kyle; Dargis, Manohla; Scott, A. O. (12 May 2020). "What Do We Lose When Cannes Is Canceled?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
^"73 Cannes Film Festival Official Selection to Be Announced". Ikon London Magazine. 28 May 2020. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
^"Thierry Frémaux talks Cannes 2020 Official Selection plans, saving cinema, and Spike Lee's return (exclusive)". Screen Daily Magazine. Archived from the original on 18 June 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
^ a bManori Ravindran, "Cannes Film Festival Plans Three-Day Special Event in October" Archived 1 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Variety, 28 September 2020.
^"Festival Scope presents the 2020 Critics' Week short films online" Archived 24 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Cineuropa, 22 October 2020.
^"Cannes Film Festival Reveals 2020 Lineup: Wes Anderson, Steve McQueen, Kate Winslet & Pixar". Deadline. 3 June 2020. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
^"Cannes selects lineup for 2020 edition after 'physical' festival shelved". The Guardian. 3 June 2020. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
^"The films of the Official Selection 2020". Cannes. 3 June 2020. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
^Fabien Lemercier, "The short films vying for the Palme d’Or at Cannes unveiled" Archived 30 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Cineuropa, 19 June 2020.
^"Egyptian film wins a Golden Palm at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival" Archived 1 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Egypt Independent, October 30, 2020.
^Fabien Lemercier, "The short film Palme d’Or goes to I Am Afraid To Forget Your Face" Archived 14 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Cineuropa, 30 October 2020.
^"Cannes Classics 2020". Festival de Cannes. 17 July 2020. Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
^"Cannes Directors' Fortnight reveals two titles selected for its cancelled 2020 edition". ScreenDaily. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
