Will the power outage in France's Alpes-Maritimes region mar the Cannes closing ceremony?

Cannes 2025: Despite the massive power outage that hit the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday morning, the closing ceremony – which is scheduled to take place today evening — will be held as planned.

The Cannes, in a statement announced that the closing ceremony will “proceed as planned,” and that it had “switched to an alternative electricity power supply, which enables us (Cannes) to maintain the events and screenings planned for today in normal conditions, including the closing ceremony". All events taking place inside the Palais will also proceed as normal.

Around 10:15am Saturday morning, Cannes was hit by the power outage, owing to the massive power cut in the French Alpes-Maritimes region. The whole town of Cannes was out of electricity, with lights going off in shops and restaurants that could only accept cash payments as a result.

Some screenings suspended

Although the Cannes closing ceremony will "proceed as planned," some screenings have been affected. Screenings taking place inside the Cineum theatre which is outside the Palais, are currently suspended and will “resume as soon as power is restored,” reads Cannes Film Festival's statement.

The press release also noted that “at this stage, the cause of the outage has not been yet identified.”

Power outage in France's Alpes-Maritimes region

France's electricity transmission system operator is working to restore the power, Reuters reported. Electricity grid operator RTE, on a social media post confirmed that approximately 160,000 homes were affected by the blackout.

Cannes Film Festival

Following the star-studded Met Gala last month, the ongoing Cannes Film Festival — known for presenting a wide range of films — also featured several Indian stars on the red carpet.

From Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Alia Bhatt to Janhvi Kapoor, Aditi Rao Hyadri — Indian celebs dazzled the red carpet with their outfits, curated by Gaurav Gupta, Anamika Khanna among others.

Cannes Film Festival dress code

Besides the film industry icons' dazzling looks, screenings of movies at the prestigious ceremony, Cannes Film Festival made headlines also for its dress code. The festival banned nudity on the red carpet, and for 2025, it even said a ‘yes’ to flat shoes.

While the Cannes festival never officially stated that flat shoes were not allowed, a group of women made headlines in 2015 for being reportedly refused entry to a screening for their ground-height footwear, mentions a report by CNN.