Cannes Film Festival in crisis ahead of closing ceremony

Cannes Film Festival faced an unexpected disruption just before its highly-anticipated closing ceremony.

The city of Cannes was hit by major power outage on Saturday morning, few hours before the event where this year’s Palme d’Or was set to be awarded.

The outage occurred precisely when Kelly Reichardt's film The Mastermind was about to hold its press conference. Power across various areas of city went out,  and according to Screen, several screening rooms were affected, halting films mid-way through.

"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."

Meanwhile, many celebrities fled to Croisette, a central hub of the festival for internet access.

Despite the setback, the organisers has assured the event will "proceed as planned," noting that "The Palais des Festivals has switched to an independent power supply, allowing all scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony," the representative confirmed.

"However, screenings at the Cinema have been temporarily suspended and will resume as soon as power is restored," they continued.

The award ceremony is set to start on the evening of May 24. 

The 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 best actor and actress.