May 24, 2025 06:53 PM IST
The Cannes Film Festival is gearing up for the closing ceremony on May 24 where the main awards will be announced by the jury, headed by Juliette Binoche.
A major power outage struck southeastern France on Saturday, disrupting traffic and briefly halting events at the Cannes Film Festival as the prestigious event prepared to hand out its top prize. (Also read: Alia Bhatt channels vintage glamour for her debut at the Cannes Film Festival. See pics)
Power outrage at Cannes
About 160,000 households in the Alpes-Maritimes department lost electricity after a high-voltage line fell Saturday morning, electricity network operator RTE said on X. The outage came hours after a fire at an electrical substation near Cannes overnight had already weakened the grid.
What the festival authorities said
Cannes Film Festival organizers confirmed the outage affected the early activities of Saturday and said the Palais des Festivals — the Croisette’s main venue — had switched to an independent power supply.
“All scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, will proceed as planned and under normal conditions,” the statement said. “At this stage, the cause of the outage has not yet been identified. Restoration efforts are underway.”
Still, screenings at the Cineum, one of the festival’s satellite venues, were briefly suspended, the festival added.
Traffic lights in parts of Cannes and the surrounding city of Antibes stopped working after 10 a.m., leading to traffic jams and confusion in city centers. Most shops along the Croisette remained closed, and local food kiosks were only accepting cash. Train service in Cannes was also disrupted.
Authorities said restoration efforts were ongoing and urged residents to remain cautious during travel.
Cannes Film Festival is set to announce this year’s awards, with fans across the world waiting to see which films among the 22 titles in the competition gets the coveted Palme d’Or. Some of the most acclaimed titles include Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, Sentimental Value by Norway’s Joachim Trier, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague and Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love.
(With inputs from AP)
