Cannes Film Festival falls victim to coronavirus scare, postponed until late June

The Cannes film festival will not take place as planned in May because of the coronavirus, its board said Thursday, with its directors looking at postponing it until late June. The world's biggest film festival was due to take place between May 12 and 23. But its board said in light of the pandemic they were now looking at rescheduling it to "the end of June-beginning of July". Several other film festivals, including Tribeca, SXSW and Edinburgh have already been cancelled or put back.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee is set as the jury head of the festival, becoming the first African-American to lead the distinguished panel at the annual film extravaganza. As the festival is cancelled, it is for the third time that it is called off. Earlier, the movie gala did not take place in 1948 and 1950 due to budgetary constraints.

Every year, top global icons walk the red carpet looking astonishing. Bollywood beauties like Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and Deepika Padukone are also constants guests at the prestigious film festival. Last year, PeeCee walked the Cannes red carpet with her American singer husband Nick Jonas. Also, Bigg Boss 11 finalist and TV actor Hina Khan also made her debut at the festival.