The Cannes film festival drew to a close on Saturday, promising to overcome a major power cut in order to hand out its prizes at a VIP-studded ceremony later.
A wry Iranian film about political prisoners and a Ukrainian-directed drama about despotism are among the frontrunners after almost a fortnight of red carpets and politically charged statements.
French actor Juliette Binoche and her jury will announce the winner from the 22 films competing for the Palme d'Or for best film, wrapping a politically charged 78th Cannes Film Festival that delivered strong contenders for the top prize but no outright favourite ahead of Saturday’s closing ceremony.
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Rumours buzzed around the Riviera resort on Saturday morning about the likely winners, but the traffic did not.
Traffic lights were knocked out by the power cut, causing major snarls, while the electricity supply was briefly cut at the film festival headquarters.
Organisers said they had switched to an alternative supply, "which enables us to maintain the events and screenings planned for today in normal conditions, including the closing ceremony".
The cause of the outage has not been announced, but police sources told AFP it was caused by a fire, probably an arson attack, on a nearby electricity substation.
The blackout affected the city of Cannes and surrounding towns, depriving 160,000 households of power supply, said French electricity transmission system operator RTE on its X account.
Contacted by Reuters, an RTE spokeswoman said she was “investigating arson”, adding that no arrests had been made.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
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