Internet Outage Hits Cannes Mid-Festival – The Hollywood Reporter

From travel problems to ticketing woes, this year’s Cannes Film Festival has not been without its challenges. On Thursday, a new headache tightened its grip on the seaside city: a widespread internet outage.

French telecommunications firm SFR — the second-largest telecom provider in the country serving more than 25 million customers — confirmed on its website that nearly 49 percent of customers experienced internet outages, with 22 percent reporting total failure of services. Issues have been flagged since this morning, beginning shortly after 9 a.m. local time.

The latest outage reports and issues are confirmed in such cities as Cannes, Nice, Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier and a handful of other locations.

Shortly after lunchtime, internet service cut out in The Hollywood Reporter’s Cannes office just off the Croisette. Spotty service continued for two hours as of press time. As confirmed by a Cannes local and IT expert, the outage is said to be affecting local businesses, hotels and general festival work.

Thursday had already started with a different, digital headache for the Cannes festival. The prestigious fest’s sudden embrace of the TikTok era appeared to have hit a rough patch when Cambodian auteur Rithy Panh resigned from his position as chair of the jury for Cannes’ inaugural TikTok short-film competition (aka #TikTokShortFilm) after a disagreement over artistic independence. “After a persistent disagreement over the independence and sovereignty of the jury for the TikTok Short Film Festival, I have decided to step down from my position as president of that jury,” Panh said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.