Cannes Film Festival: Power Outage Hits Southeast France, Closing Ceremony to Proceed as Planned

Cannes Film Festival: Another power outage hit southeastern France on Saturday, disturbing traffic and briefly disrupting events of the Cannes Festival of Film while the top prize was about to be handed over.

About 160,000 households in Alpes-Maritimes lost power after a high-voltage line fell Saturday morning, RTE-the electricity network operator-tweeted. The outage came hours after a fire at an electrical substation near Cannes last night had already weakened the grid.

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In a statement, the organizers of Cannes Film Festival confirmed the outage impacted early days events on Saturday, and said that the Palais des Festivals - the main venue of the Croisette - had switched over to an alternative independent power supply.

“All scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, will proceed as planned and under normal conditions,” the statement said. "At this stage, the cause of the outage has not yet been identified. Restoration efforts are underway."

Still, a screening at the Cineum - one of the festival's satellites venues - was suspended briefly, added the festival.

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Traffic lights in parts of Cannes and in surrounding Antibes, een to stop working after 10 a.m., which caused traffic jams and confusion in city centers. Most shops along the Croisette stayed shut, and local food kiosks were running a cash only basis. Train service in Cannes was also disrupted.

Authorities stated that restoration efforts were ongoing and asked residents to remain vigilant, especially when travelling.

The Cannes Film Festival is preparing to deliver this year’s awards, with audiences around the world waiting to learn which of the 22 films nominated for this year’s top prize (the Palme d’Or) will take home the top award. Of the most celebrated titles this year, contenders include Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident and Sentimental Value by Norway’s own Joachim Trier and America’s Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague and Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love.

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