A revolution is happening at the Cannes Film Festival 2018 as new rules are introduced
Text by
Luigi Locatelli

Thierry Fremaux, director of Cannes Film Festival, announced that “Starting from this year selfies are banned from the red carpet. The triviality provoked by selfies ruins the quality of the red carpet, and thus the festival entirely.” But not only.

The very much rumoured big news of Cannes 2018 include, in order:

  • The (rather appropriate) selfie ban on the montée de marche that leads to the Grand Théâtre Lumière, a ritual that was usually performed by fake instagram influencers, who wanted to share their exclusive location with all-of-you-losers at home.
  • Overflowing #metooism, for which all the major juries, Compétition and Un certain regard, were carefully prepared with predominantly female members, so as to prevent in advance any polemics and accusations of patriarchalistic sexism.
  • A card was put in all the press bags with the headline “Comportement Correct Exigé” and the emergency number 0492998009 to call in case you became victim of harassment and other sexist violence, or if you heard of something filthy going on (will it also work with male victims?);
  • The widely debated decision to stop advance press screenings of world premiere. It was meant to prevent leaks to the social networks (especially evil comments about films) before the official Palace screenings with authors and cast were held, thus avoiding to put a label on a film without a proper analysis. It was also meant to prevent from taking to the red carpet heavy-hearted actors and actresses who scrolled bad comments on instagram and twitter and were booed during the press screening. Press projections are now scheduled as follows: the world premieres are scheduled at 19.00 (at the Grand Theater Lumière) and will be viewed simultaneously by journalists at the Salle Debussy. On the following morning at 8:30 the appointment is with the films that are screened officially at 22:00. Which, let’s face it, is a dry loss of status for journalists. In addition to being a problem for paper magazines and newspapers, because what’s left of them usually closes at about ten o’clock in the evening. But, according to Thierry Fremaux’s comment, “The suspense will be total!”.