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The 2015 Cannes Film Festival in numbers

The 68th Cannes Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday. Here's everything you need to know about it, from the tiny number of female Palme d'Or directors to the whopping total budget.

The 2015 Cannes Film Festival in numbers
The official Cannes Film Festival banner is unveiled. Photo: AFP
0 – The number of selfies allowed on the red carpet this year. Yes, they have been banned. Why? Because the director general of the festival, Thierry Frémaux, said that the “horrible” selfies make the entrance look “cluttered and disorganized”.
 
 
1 – The number of female directors who've won the prestigious Palme D'Or prize – and that was back in 1993 for Kiwi Jane Campion and her film The Piano. 
 
Indeed, the organizers are well aware of the male dominance when it comes to award-winning directors, and this year chose a film from a female director to open the show – Emmanuelle Bercot's La Tete Haute. It will mark only the second time it's happened. Cannes will also award the honorary Palme D'Or to a woman for the first time ever.
 

(France's Emmanuelle Bercot. Her film “La Tete haute” will open the festival. Photo: AFP)
 
9 – The number of members of the jury. There are five men and four women in the 2015 jury, and it will be headed by the two presidents Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.
 
The full list (read more here): Filmstars Jake Gyllenhaal, Sienna Miller, Sophie Marceau, Rossy de Palma, directors Guillermo del Toro, Xavier Dolan, and singer-songwriter Rokia Traore.
 

(Sienna Miller will be on the jury. Photo: AFP)
 
60 – The length, in metres, of the red carpet. A fresh red carpet is rolled out for each screening, meaning 180 metres will be used each day. 
 
83 – The number of features to be screened this year in the festival, including 53 in the official selection (of which 19 are competing for the Palme d'Or).
 
468 – The number of 24-hour security cameras filming around the city. The shorefront, known as La Croisette, will be closely watched due to the regular increase in crime in the city over the period of the festival. 
 
 
500 – The number of extra police officers being sent to patrol the festival due to the typical increase in crimes (some of which are major burglaries, including this €17.5 million heist last week). Most of the officers will be in civilian clothes. 
 
4,500 – The approximate number of journalists who will be on hand to cover the event.
 

(A closer look at the jury. Photo: AFP)
 
31,500 – The number of people accredited to the event (not including the journalists)
 
210,000 – The population of Cannes during the festival. Usually, it's only around 70,000, meaning the population triples during for the festival. 
 
20 million – The budget for the festival, in euros (around $23 million). It's half funded by French taxpayers, and half by corporate sponsors.
 
 
 
 

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FILM

Cannes Film Festival postponed to July due to Covid

The Cannes Film Festival has been rescheduled for July 6th to 17th - postponed by around two months due to the ongoing virus crisis, organisers said on Wednesday.

Cannes Film Festival postponed to July due to Covid
The 2018 Palme d'Or winner Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda posing for the cameras at the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual highlight for movie lovers in France. Photo: AFP

“As announced last autumn, the Festival de Cannes reserved the right to change its dates depending on how the global health situation developed,” they said in a statement.

“Initially scheduled from 11th to 22nd May 2021, the Festival will therefore now take place from Tuesday 6th to Saturday 17th July 2021.”

The festival was cancelled last year, while rival European events in Berlin and Venice went ahead under strict health restrictions.

The Berlin Film Festival, which usually kicks off in February, said last month it would run this year's edition in two stages, an online offering for industry professionals in March and a public event in June.

France has closed all cinemas, theatres and show rooms alongside cafés, bars and restaurants as part of its Covid-19 health measures and the government has pushed back their reopening date until further notice due to rising levels of viral spread across the country.

The Cannes festival normally attracts some 45,000 people with official accreditations, of whom around 4,500 are journalists.

It had only been cancelled once before, due to the outbreak of war in 1939.

Its Film Market, held alongside the main competition, is the industry's biggest marketplace for producers, distributors, buyers and programmers.

Last year, the festival still made an official selection of 56 films – including the latest offerings from Wes Anderson, Francois Ozon and Steve McQueen – allowing them to use the “Cannes official selection” label.

 

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