Cannes & Berlinale delayed
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 2:10PM 
While we're on record objecting to awards shows changing their eligibility dates like crazy (despite, you know, the quarantine accessibility of streaming giving us all ways to see lots of movies) here's one change we can totally get behind and which makes total sense. Cannes, which always takes place in May, has moved itself to July for the 2021 film year. More specifically the festival will run from July 6th through July 17th. Last year, Spike Lee as chosen as jury president but then the event was cancelled so he was meant to reign in 2021 instead. That's still the plan (assuming Spike's schedule hasn't changed).
Though this is only a two month move it could prove a bit disruptive to the fall A list festivals like Venice, Telluride, and Toronto who generally can nab world premieres from prestige filmmakers whose films weren't quite ready for Cannes. Now all the A-list non Sundance festivals, including Berlinale, which is usually in February but will be in June this year, will take place across only a four month span. That's a lot of competition for films!
Berlinale, Cannes, film festivals
Reader Comments (3)
Is everyone really expecting all this to happen how would they Social Distance,in the UK we are stuck in,yeah more movies to catch up on and revisit,we've no idea when we'll be out again properly and weather masks etc are with us for the long term.
I really can't see how Oscar will do the show this year.
The European Union is totally failing with their vaccination plan so we'll see.
"Though this is only a two month move it could prove a bit disruptive to the fall A list festivals like Venice, Telluride, and Toronto who generally can nab world premieres from prestige filmmakers whose films weren't quite ready for Cannes."
If (a BIG if) the fall festivals can hold physical events, it seems like there might be plenty of films to go around due to the delays? There might also be some films that just made it out of production (like Joel Coen's Macbeth) and/or were filmed in secret like (Malcolm & Marie). They also most likely will reduce their programming for social distancing.
Finally, the festivals' programming might mirror one another as most likely audiences and industry members might not be able to leave their locations. Especially since the fall festivals made a "truce" and got behind Nomadland in 2020.
This is all guesswork from me because I can't really picture most of them happening in person.