According to The Wrap, this year the Cannes Film Festival denied accreditation to a number of Russian journalists.

According to the broadcast’s interlocutors, Agnes Leroy, head of the festival’s press service, explained to them in Cannes that they “expect an improvement in relations between Russia and Ukraine”, but this has not yet happened, and nothing less. More than two weeks left until the start of the festival. Therefore, it was decided to reject all Russian journalists.

When asked by The Wrap, Leroy replied that only media “corresponding to the festival’s position with regard to the situation in Ukraine” were approved. He did not specify whether there were at least some Russians among the accredited journalists.

Ekaterina Karslidy, founder of Cinemaholics, also tweeted that the organizers of the Cannes festival were ignoring their emails, but stated that the website had nothing to do with the Russian government.

Kirill Serebrennikov

According to Carslidy, one of the largest film festivals in Europe cannot ignore Russian journalists when there is Russian cinema in its program – we recall that Kirill Serebrennikov’s film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” entered the main competition of the 75th Cannes Film Festival. The director is now abroad, speaking openly on his social networks against the special operation in Ukraine.

One of The Wrap’s sources suggested that festival organizers “didn’t know how to determine who is who” and so they decided to reject everyone so as not to cause trouble for them.

Earlier, the Bolshoi Theater announced the cancellation of productions of Kirill Serebrennikov (Nureyev ballet) and Timofey Kulyabin (Don Pasquale opera), scheduled for May.