Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Cannes Festival refuses entry to Russian journalists from publications that do not oppose war in Ukraine

Official Russian delegates and anyone linked to Putin’s government have also been banned

Ellie Harrison
Monday 09 May 2022 14:08 BST
Comments
Putin claims Russian troops in Ukraine are ‘fighting for victory’ of motherland

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

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.

Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin (SPUTNIK/AFP/Getty)

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.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in