The city of Cannes was hit by a major power outage on Saturday morning, just hours before the film festival is set to award this year’s Palme d’Or. Despite the technical challenges, a festival rep tells Variety that the closing ceremony will “proceed as planned” after the Palais des Festivals “switched to an independent power supply.” According to Franceinfo, the cause of the outage may be foul play with two arson acts reported overnight and several power lines pylons were discovered to have been sawn off in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Karin Topin-Condomitti, director of services at the Cannes city hall, said the local government was still trying to determine whether the power outage was caused by a malicious act. She said there will likely be an investigation.
“We have read, as I’m sure you have, reports in the media and press of malicious acts,” Topin-Condomitti said. “In my opinion, this should be the subject of an ongoing investigation, subject to confirmation by the public prosecutor’s office. In any case, we’re taking action to deal with the consequences of this power cut as best we can. The courts will investigate.”
Around 10:15 a.m., as the press conference for Kelly Reichardt’s competition film “The Mastermind” was starting, power in parts of the city went out. According to Screen, which was first to report news of the outage, the power also went down in several screening rooms, halting films midway through their showings, though the power in the Palais stayed on thanks to back-up generators. In the J.W. Marriott on the Croisette, a festival hub that several attendees fled to for internet access, the power flickered on and off several times. Due to the power outage, many restaurants closed or went cash only. That proved difficult, as ATMs went down as well.
“A power outage is currently affecting the city of Cannes and surrounding areas,” a representative for the festival told Variety. “At this stage, the cause of the outage has not yet been identified. Restoration efforts are underway.”
The rep added: “The Palais des Festivals has switched to an independent power supply, allowing all scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, to proceed as planned and under normal conditions. However, screenings at the Cineum have been temporarily suspended and will resume as soon as power is restored.”
At 2:20 p.m. local time, the power had yet to be restored. However, the mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, said power company EDF is working on restoring power by this afternoon. Franceinfo has reported that “malicious acts” may be the source of the outage, citing France’s Ministry of the Interior. According to Franceinfo, the two arson attacks occurred at the Saint-Cassien power plant.
The festival’s awards ceremony is set to start on Saturday night at 6:40 p.m. CET. Jury president Juliette Binoche and members Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, Payal Kapadia, Hong Sansoo, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi and Carlos Reygadas will hand out the festival’s top awards, including the Palme d’Or and the prizes for best actor and actress.
Elsa Keslassy contributed to this report.
