Variety reports that the event in France spent more than $1 million to test some 28,000 people in attendance, without any cost to the attendees. Those from the European Union could bypass such procedures by showing proof of vaccination, but there were no guarantees that people wouldn’t get sick as the Delta variant spread globally.
The 74th annual Cannes Film Festival beat the odds by delivering two weeks of nonstop movies — and major stars such as Matt Damon, Regina King and Timothée Chalamet — in the middle of a global pandemic.
When French actor Léa Seydoux, who had three films in competition, canceled her trip to Cannes after testing positive for Covid-19, which she contracted on a movie set, some feared that it was the beginning of a wave of cases.