Cannes film festival postponed over coronavirus outbreak

PARIS: The 2020 Cannes Film Festival has been officially postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The world´s biggest film festival, which was due to take place between May 12 and 23, will not be held as planned due to the coronavirus outbreak, its board said Thursday, with its directors looking at postponing it until late June.

The board said in light of the pandemic they were now looking at rescheduling it to "the end of June-beginning of July".

Over the past few days, several other film festivals, including Tribeca, SXSW and Edinburgh have been cancelled  or postponed owing to the prevailing situation around the world.

A Tweet came down from Cannes’ official account saying simply that “Due to the health crisis and the development of the French and international situation, the Festival de Cannes will no longer be able to take place on the dates planned, from May 12 to 23.” 

The board has also expressed its solidarity for all those people who have been fighting the deadly virus. France has been under complete lockdown amid the COVID-19 scare. The country has reported numerous deaths and infections in the past weeks.