The president of the Cannes film festival has said that the 2020 edition will be cancelled if the coronavirus outbreak worsens but at present he is “reasonably optimistic” it will go ahead.
In an interview to a French publication Le Figaro, Pierre Lescure has said that the fate of this year's festival remains uncertain. Lescure said, "We remain reasonably optimistic in the hope that the peak of the epidemic will be reached at the end of March and that we will breathe a little better in April."
He added, "But we are not oblivious. If [the situation does not improve], we’ll cancel."
This year, Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to start on May 12.
For weeks, there has been speculation that Cannes Film Festival may be cancelled this year due to the increase in the spread of COVID-19, across the world.
On Sunday, France introduced new measures banning gatherings of more than 1,000 people in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. Television market MIPTV, scheduled to take place in Cannes at the end of March, has been cancelled.