Draws 28 Thousand Visitors, Cannes Film Festival 2021 Successfully Zero Cluster COVID-19

JAKARTA - The 2021 Cannes Film Festival event during the pandemic has become a separate record for organizing a large event after it was closed last time. Quoted from Variety, Cannes spent more than US $ 1 million or around Rp. 14.5 billion to conduct free and regular Covid-19 tests to 28,000 visitors.

"This is an extraordinary festival. We managed to do it at the right time and under almost normal conditions. Thanks to a smart and responsible protocol," said Festival Artistic Director Thierry Frémaux at the close of the Cannes Film Festival, Saturday, July 17 local time. .

To date there have been no reports of clusters or major cases in Cannes. This dismissed rumors that French President Emmanuel Macron would close the festival and also proved unfounded.

The film business carried out between distributors and producers or filmmakers at the Cannes Film Festival has not been maximized like normal times. Many distributors are still hesitant to show films in theaters, and are still calculating the effectiveness of ticket sales related to the pandemic conditions that hit the world.

But when the pandemic was over, Cannes produced quite a list of films that could make most buyers aka distributors happy.

How can the Cannes Film Festival achieve zero cluster COVID-19 with thousands of visitors? In addition to free and regular Covid-19 tests for 28,000 visitors, they also give access for visitors from the European Union not to have to take a Covid-19 test if they can show proof of vaccination.

Top stars such as Matt Damon, Regina King and Timothée Chalamet are here, and are showing non-stop films for two weeks amid the pandemic.

Many independent distributors such as Neon, A24, IFC Films and Sony Pictures Classics are returning from France with new titles ready to be released in the future.

"Nothing replaces the great experience of watching a film on the big screen at the festival," said Grégoire Melin of Kinology, one of the people responsible for selling Annette's film.