ReportageHealth pass, PCR tests, masks, QR codes … After the cancellation of 2020, the Festival returns to Cannes weighed down by a strict health protocol. Without completely forgetting the glamorous touch.
The huge white tent erected next to the Palais des Festivals has, at first glance, nothing very glittery… However, it is certainly the most glamorous place of the moment to spit in a glass. The antenna of the Cannes Biogroup laboratory, reserved for accredited persons, offers a magnificent view of the port and its billionaire yachts. At the head of 50 operators in white screen-printed polo shirts, Doctor Guillaume Armana is preparing to test 5,000 participants per day, seven days a week. Free results in six hours. But for urgent situations and for 50 euros, the test can be carried out in thirty minutes on jetlagged actresses who have already put on their cocktail dresses.
Because the 2021 edition of the Cannes Film Festival will not escape the health restrictions still in force on French territory. “The Festival will respect the law, it will be necessary to present a valid health pass, warns François Desrousseaux, who is in charge, alongside the general delegate Thierry Frémaux, of the health organization of the Festival. We are still talking a lot with the prefecture and the regional health agency to see how to adapt the protocol. “
Strict regulations
In the spring, Thierry Frémaux had already detailed the essentials: will only be able to enter the Palais des Festivals and the screening rooms “Spectators presenting either a certificate of complete vaccination, or an immunity acquired more than fifteen days and less than six months ago, or a PCR or serological test of less than forty-eight hours”. The teams of films in the Official Selection, the delegations wishing to participate in the Film Market or the journalists coming to cover the Cannes Film Festival will therefore have to comply with these regulations.
The details remained to be clarified: what about the stars with a Chinese (CoronaVac) or Russian (Sputnik V) vaccine, not approved by the European Medicines Agency? Teams from Eastern Europe or Latin America are the most affected and will have to be tested every 48 hours.
For the traditional climb of the stairs, on the other hand, a solution has been negotiated with the prefect: the actors will have the right to remove their masks when they come under fire from the photographers who, crammed behind gates, will have to keep theirs. “The advertisers understood that the masks would be removed when the photos were taken”, insists François Desrousseaux, aware that the brands, each year, rely heavily on the smiles of their muses, gathered on the Croisette …
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