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.
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.
“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.”
French broadcaster France 3 posted a video to its X account showing attendees navigating the festival in the dark, saying there had been a “general power outage in the city.”
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.
Variety has reached out to the festival for comment.
More to come…