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. However, 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 over night and power-line pylons sawn off.
Around 10:15 a.m., right as the press conference for Kelly Reichardt’s competition film “The Mastermind” was starting, power in various areas 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 mid-way through. 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, but ATMs are 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, two arson attacks occurred at the Saint-Cassien power plant over night, and several power lines pylons were discovered to have been sawn off in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Variety has reached out to the festival press office for comment on the suspected foul play.
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 best actor and actress.
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