Cannes Moves Market Dates to June

Cannes has moved its market. Again. 

On Wednesday, the Marché du Film, Cannes’ film market, said its all-digital prescreening event, initially planned for late May, would be moved to late June. 

The 2021 Pre-Cannes Screenings are now planned for June 21-25. 

Cannes said it made the shift following the request from sales agents, saying “a vast majority” of the more than 700 sales companies that responded to their survey on the question preferred the June dates for the event. 

“Listening to and answering the needs of the industry are key values of the Marché du Film team,” the market said in a statement. 

The Marché is still branding the online event as a “pre-screening” market. An official, in-person Marché is planned to run in July alongside the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. 

“We have decided to run the online Pre-Cannes Screenings from 21-25 June, two weeks before the Marché du Film in Cannes (6-15 July),” the market said in a statement.

The move will come as a relief for many industry players who were facing a packed schedule going into the summer months. Berlin’s online-only European Film Market wrapped in early March, later than usual, and many producers are this week taking Zoom calls and making pitches as part of the digital MIPTV international television market.  A June Marché will still give buyers and sellers a window to package and prefinance movies that can, COVID-19 willing, be shot in the summer.

The new dates mean the Cannes market will follow right on the heels of Berlin’s summer event. The Berlinale plans to hold a series of red carpet galas in the German capital from June 9 to 20 to screen the winners of this year’s (online-only) festival.