A major power outage brought parts of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival to a standstill on Saturday — just as organizers were gearing up to hand out the coveted Palme d’Or. While power has since been restored, whispers of sabotage are turning up the drama off-screen.
The blackout struck early Saturday morning across the Alpes-Maritimes region in southeastern France, knocking out electricity for roughly 160,000 households. Train lines paused, traffic lights blinked out, and most shops along the glitzy Croisette shuttered their doors. Some food vendors switched to cash-only service, while festival-goers scrambled for answers.
Festival organizers quickly switched the iconic Palais des Festivals to backup power, vowing the show would go on. “All scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, will proceed as planned and under normal conditions,” said a statement from the festival. Still, screenings at the Cineum venue were briefly put on pause.
The situation turned more mysterious as local media and officials began to raise the specter of arson. A fire at a substation near Cannes the night before had already weakened the grid. Then, on Friday evening, another incident involving a sabotaged power pylon in Villeneuve-Loubet added fuel to the theory that this wasn’t just an accident.
Controversial French politician Éric Ciotti didn’t hold back, posting on X: “A massive power outage is affecting the department. A pylon was sabotaged and a transformer caught fire. Initial indications suggest a deliberate, even terrorist, attack. We need full transparency and quick answers.”
As for the star-studded festival, Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great, starring June Squibb, still premiered as scheduled, and press conferences for buzzed-about films like the Dardenne brothers’ Young Mothers and Martin Bourboulon’s war epic 13 Days, 13 Nights continued.
The Palme d’Or is still set to be awarded this weekend, with Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, featuring Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgård, leading the pack after earning a thunderous 19-minute standing ovation.
French authorities say the cause of the outage is still under investigation, but for now, Cannes continues — with an extra layer of suspense no one saw coming.
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.