Cannes film festival to end decades of tradition
Best Actor prize laureate US actor Joaquin Phoenix, Best Screenplay co-laureates British director Lynne Ramsay and Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, Palme d’Or laureate Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, Best Actress Prize laureate German actress Diane Kruger, French actress and President of the Camera d’Or jury Sandrine Kiberlain and Camera d’Or laureate French director Leonor Serraille pose on stage on May 28, 2017 at the end of the closing ceremony of the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France. For the next edition of the festival, the Palme d’Or will be awarded on a Saturday. Image: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP
The Cannes film festival is to end decades of tradition next year by awarding its top Palme d’Or prize on a Saturday rather than a Sunday, its organizers said Wednesday.
“The festival is beginning a new period in its history,” its president Pierre Lescure said of the shake-up, which he hoped would “rebalance and bring new energy” to the two-week jamboree on the French Riviera.
The 71st edition of the world’s biggest and most prestigious film festival will now start on May 8, 2018 — a Tuesday — rather than the traditional Wednesday.
The festival organizers said holding the awards ceremony on Saturday night would also “give the closing film better exposure” and allow them to squeeze in an extra red-carpet gala.
Many exhausted critics and entertainment business movers and shakers return home after the Cannes market, where the big deals are made, closes on the Friday, often missing the final films in competition for the Palme d’Or and other prizes. AB
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