BellaOnline Forums TV and Movies Drama Movies Cannes Film Fest In Jeopardy Due to Coronavirus

The annual Cannes Film Festival, scheduled to run May 12th - 23rd, may or may not happen this year due to the spread of coronavirus. Close to forty movie theaters in France are closed and Series Mania, the annual French television festival, has already been cancelled. Pierre Lescure, the Cannes Film Fest president, said he is "reasonably optimistic" that the event will take place but only if the situation in France improves by April.

Here in the US, the cancellation of Austin's SXSW festival has already hurt independent filmmakers.

Update: Cannes announced today that it would indeed postpone the film festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers said they are considering holding the fest the end of June - beginning of July.

In a related story, Netflix is limiting the streaming quality for its subscribers in Europe for the next 30 days. While much of the population of the European Union remains on lockdown, government officials are worried that internet networks will be overwhelmed.