Cannes Film Fest Expecting 90% Of Industry Delegates To Attend In Person; Asia Set To Return Despite Travel Challenges

deadline.com:

Cannes Film Festival says it is anticipating in-person industry attendance at its 2022 edition to be “much higher than last year”, with the vast majority of delegates set to make the trip.Last year, the French fest reported 10,000 total registrations for its market, split roughly evenly between on-site and online attendance.

That total was in line with 2020, when the event was entirely digital due to lockdowns, with 10,000 professionals registering for the virtual market.In 2019, pre-Covid, Cannes saw more than 12,500 industry delegates jet to the Riviera.

Currently, registration numbers are tracking below 2019, but the fest is expecting many to make last-minute decisions amid degrees of ongoing uncertainty.Jerome Paillard, who is set to oversee his final Marche du Film before handing over the keys to Guillaume Esmiol, told Deadline that this year the event was forecasting only 10% of delegates to be virtual attendees, with the remainder travelling to France.Paillard added that the U.S., UK and Germany are expected to lead the international presence at the fest, as per normal.

One further territory that is likely to have a significantly increased presence on the Riviera this year is Asia, despite major Asian nations still having significant travel restrictions in place.The Marche chief noted that recently rules in several Asian countries have become less strict, which was echoed by companies that Deadline contacted regarding whether they are planning to attend this year.Albert Lee, director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival, told Deadline that appetite to be at Cannes from the Asian market was “palpable”.Hong Kong is operating a ‘zero-Covid’ policy, but restrictions are slowly being relaxed and new rules from