The Cannes International Television Festival Will Launch In April 2018
French television festival organizer Reed Midem has officially partnered with the city of Cannes on an international festival to showcase dramatic television, Variety reports. The fest will run alongside Midem’s MIPTV, one the world’s largest television markets, the other being MIPCOM, also run by Midem.
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The first edition of the new festival will take place during 2018’s MIPTV, which runs in April. The Cannes Film Festival runs each year in May.
Cannes Mayor David Lisnard was reportedly a main proponent of the new TV festival, which will include a substantial market component run by Midem and MIPTV.
“This event will combine Cannes’ experience in hosting major festivals and Reed Midem’s background in delivering the leading international television business events MIPTV and MIPCOM,” MIPTC said in a statement provided to Variety. “Reed Midem is thrilled to partner with Cannes on a project that will be great for the international television community, great for the public and great for France.”
The most recent edition of MIPTV brought together more than 11,000 participants from over 100 countries.
The announcement of the new festival comes as the French government is pursuing the launch of a festival dedicated to series television, Midem told Variety, adding that Paris and Lille were considered the most likely prospects for hosting. Lisnard stated that the city of Cannes will follow through on the new festival regardless of whether the French government launches its own event.
As IndieWire reported on Wednesday, a new TV festival in Cannes was always going to exist as a separate entity from the city’s prestigious film festival. “Cannes is a film festival,” artistic director Thierry Fremaux told IndieWire’s Eric Kohn last year. As for television, “we must invent a special festival for it.”
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Previous TV projects included in the Cannes lineup have always been referred to as film projects, not television. One of the most recent examples was Steven Soderbergh’s 2013 Official Competition selection, HBO telefilm “Behind the Candelabra.”
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