Is Cannes Destined to Become Next COVID Super-Spreader?
variety.comCannes Film Festival’s Grand Théâtre Lumière, we can tell you what it’s not: a surgical mask.Like most of the world, France has relaxed its safety protocols around COVID-19 despite the ongoing transmission of the highly-infectious Omicron variant, and that extends to the annual celebration of cinema on the French Riviera.
Kicking off on Tuesday, industry players and Hollywood stars began pouring into the coastal city on Monday feeling twinges of excitement at the most robust Cannes lineup since the pandemic first struck – though many fear the event itself will be a super-spreader. “There hasn’t been a major event where a lot of people didn’t get COVID.
There’s no way Cannes will be any different,” one sales agent bemoaned to Variety, and that logic tracks. Since Omicron first bulldozed New York City in December 2021, major cultural events that followed resulted in exposures, and cases.
March’s BAFTA Awards was accused of being a COVD hotbed, one that claimed acclaimed actor-director Kenneth Branagh (who had recovered by the time he picked up his Oscar for “Belfast”).
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