Cannes Film Festival chaos as city is hit by power cut hours before awards ceremony

The prestigious has been struck by chaos today as a power cut has affected the region of where it's held. The news comes just hours ahead of the closing ceremony in the city of Cannes later tonight.

This year's festival, which on May 13, is still scheduled to conclude this evening with the film awards ceremony despite the outage in the Alpes-Maritimes region. It's been announced that power in various parts of Cannes went out at around 10am local time, which is 9am in , but the festival is now using an independent power supply.

Those in the city began posting about the power outage on social media. One person, who was at Cannes station when the outage took place, wrote in a tweet, translated from French: "There's an improvisation at #Cannes station following the citywide power outage."

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Meanwhile, festival attendees reported screenings had switched off mid-way through, according to . It's however been reported that an independent power supply to convention centre Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, where the annual festival is held, is now in use.

It's said to have meant that events like a press conference for the film the Mastermind (2025) went ahead earlier. Organisers have suggested that the independent supply meants that the closing ceremony can also take place as planned.

In a statement to Screen, the festival said: "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."

It however said that screenings at the Cineum, a cinema in Cannes, have been "temporarily suspended" until "power is restored". The festival said in the statement that the "power outage" is currently affecting the city and "surrounding areas".

The news of the power outage comes just hours ahead of the closing ceremony of this year's Cannes Film Festival at the convention centre later tonight. It marks the end of the 12-day event, which launched last Tuesday.

Feature film winners chosen by the respective jury will be announced in the awards ceremony this evening. It includes the winner of the Palme d'Or, which is awarded to the director of the best film in the Official Competition.

The recipient of the coveted award will follow in the footsteps of director who won it last year for Anora (2024). The film winner of this year's Palme d'Or will be screened in the Grand Théâtre Lumière after the ceremony.

is chairing the jury for feature films at the festival this year. She's among several actors on the panel, including fellow winner and Succession star . Alba Rohrwacher is also with them.

The jury also includes filmmakers like Carlos Reygadas. Among the jurors for the festival are fellow directors Payal Kapadia, Dieudo Hamadi and Hong Sang-soo. Writer Leïla Slimani is part of the panel for feature films alongside them.

Winners of awards in other film groups, including Un Certain Regard, have already been announced at this year's Cannes Film Festival. They had different juries.

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