The Cannes Film Festival is declining press accreditation requests from Russian journalists associated with outlets that do not oppose the war in Ukraine.
The festival’s organisers had already publicly condemned Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine and un-invited all official Russian delegates or anyone linked to the Russian government from taking part in or attending the 2022 event.
A festival spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that Cannes approved “only the few” Russian publications that share the festival’s anti-war stance.
Some outlets, however, might not have a choice in whether they can publicly oppose Putin, given that strict new censorship laws have criminalised speaking out in any way against his regime.
Some Russian people will be attending the film festival, such as director Kirill Serebrennikov, who will be showing his latest movie – the historical drama Tchaikovsky’s Wife – in the main competition.
Serebrennikov is considered a dissident. He was previously targeted by the Russian government with fraud charges that kept him under house arrest. Banned from leaving the country last year, he attended the event virtually to present his film Petrov’s Flu. He eventually left Russia earlier this year.
A number of other European film festivals – such as Glasgow’s and Stockholm’s – have shown their support for Ukraine by boycotting films funded by Russia altogether.
Cannes is one of the largest film festivals in the world and is attended by about 4,000 journalists from around 75 countries. The 2022 edition begins on Tuesday 17 May and runs through 28 May. Read the lineup here.
