Cannes 'can't wait' for film festival after 'horrible' year

The five-star palace hotels are in full swing, the sound of music drifts across the beach and after a 'horrible' year blighted by coronavirus, Cannes is buzzing again for its international film festival.

"We can't wait," admits Pierrick Cizeron, chief executive at the Majestic hotel that overlooks the Mediterranean and the festival convention center.

In 2020, the festival that draws stars from across the world, had to be cancelled because of the pandemic.
With France under a partial lockdown in Spring, the 2021 edition has been delayed from the usual May date to July 6-17.

The festival pulled in 40,000 people a day pre-COVID - only about half that number are expected this year - and provided 20 percent of annual hotel turnover.

"It's more than just the excitement, we are in the middle of recruiting 250 people for the season," says Yann Gillet, director of the luxury Martinez hotel, which was full for the late May bank holiday weekend.

Last year's cancellation,he says, left staff "heart-broken" at a hotel that usually fills with celebrities for the festival.

The movie extravaganza, "is a real driving force and punctuates our year," Gillet says.

"Often clients come to see us and ask if it really was Brad Pitt's room."

On the seventh floor of the Martinez, which was totally renovated in 2019, the final touches are being made to a double penthouse suite booked by Chopard jewellers for the duration of the festival.

The Riviera resort had lived well off tourism and conventions, but the hotels and restaurants that provided most of the local jobs have been shut for long periods and had to rely on government handouts to try to keep mounting debt under control.

Despite high hopes for the festival,...