New rules have been established at the Cannes Film Festival. Selfies on the red carpet and previews for journalists have been banned to avoid prejudices on official projections.
Thierry Frémaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival, set some new rules for this year’s event. The first ban was directly implemented on the red carpet, an area where this year selfies will no longer be allowed. Those who will walk on the red carpet towards the Auditorium Louis Lumière, where the official projections will take place, will not be able to stop and take pictures next to the fans and the press.
The second new rule, imposed at Cannes, concerns the relationship between the Festival and the press: there has been an overhaul of the Cannes press screening schedule. This decision was made due to the fact that over the last years many films were reviewed before the official screening took place. The direct consequence of this was the early diffusion, especially through social media, of prejudices about the product. This problem can be particularly noticeable in France, a country in which film reviews have a great impact on the commercial success of audiovisual products.
The second provision was not well received among the French press, which in fact accused the Cannes Film Festival to favor producers by turning the occasion into an advertising event, instead of an occasion for film reviews. The role of the experts in the sector, they claim, should be focused on seeing the product, analyze it and evaluate it, in order to guarantee its quality. To do so, reviewers must be able to watch the films before their official screening.
