Cannes festival left fuming by April Fool’s line-up

PARIS—A French blog has admitted to posting a bogus line-up for next month’s Cannes Film Festival, saying it was tricked by an April Fool’s prank that left the organizers of the Riviera showcase fuming.

“It was an April Fool’s stunt played by a couple of jokers,” the festival’s general delegate Thierry Fremaux, who is tasked with choosing films to compete in the May 16-27 festival, told AFP late Tuesday.

“Everything they said is false — simply because the line-up hasn’t been decided yet,” he said, confirming that the films in the running would be unveiled as planned at an April 19 press conference.

“I am stunned to see how easily some media let themselves be tricked.”

The 24 films on the fake list — which was widely picked up on Twitter and movie-watching websites — included Wes Anderson’s already announced Cannes opening film “Moonrise Kingdom”, David Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis” starring Robert Pattinson, and Jacques Audiard’s “Rust and Bone” with Marion Cotillard.

The unofficial Cannes Festival Blog — which has no link with the real event — said it was fooled by the list, which purported to be sourced from a document posted in error on the festival’s website.

“It was an impressive list that was genuinely sent to us. Unfortunately it was just a joke — we were taken in too,” wrote the blog late Tuesday. “Sorry for the stress!”

A furious Fremaux said it was “scandalous for filmmaker names to be thrown around like that, considering that some of them will not be able to finish their films in time for the festival.”