Cannes film festival outlines new commitment to the environment

The Festival de Cannes is putting into place a series of measures aiming at implementing its presence and future in an essential movement whereby the festival believes all cultural event organisers must be committed environmental campaigners.

The festival intends to usher in an even greater commitment to environmental responsibility and action: responsibility because the time has come for a radically different way of producing a major international event, and action through strong and unprecedented measures put in place for the 74th Festival which will take place from July 6-17 2021.

After several months of preparation with the consulting firm Green Événements, and driven by the determination of the organising team, the Festival’s commitment will aim to unite the efforts of all involved, from professionals, Festival-goers, official partners and service providers to the Palais des festivals and the Cannes Town Hall.

To meet this challenge, the Festival de Cannes has set itself the task of entirely rethinking its modus operandi while remaining faithful to its history, its traditions and the ambitions that underpin the Cannes legend. In recent years, the Festival has undertaken a series of actions, in close collaboration with the Palais des Festivals, to reduce its carbon footprint: reduction of electricity consumption thanks to planned lighting, recycling of tarpaulins, optimisation of waste recovery, printing of all documents on certified paper, compensation for guests’ travel, incentives to carbon compensation for accredited professionals.

In 2021, the Festival has decided to move up a gear, with a strong and reinvigorated ambition to integrate environmental requirements into the way the event is organised, based on a three-pronged strategy: reducing waste and carbon emissions, recovering residual materials, and offsetting the carbon footprint.

“The challenge is huge, but we will and must succeed, each year a little more, each year a little better. Today, we are taking an important and hugely ambitious step. We will report on it regularly, in very practical ways. The 74th edition will herald the future for a Festival that will last,” said Pierre Lescure, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, general delegate, in a joint statement.