LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - David Lisnard, the mayor of Cannes who is a driving force behind Canneseries, has unveiled massive plans to revamp the city, including its Palais des Festivals, the main venue of the Cannes Film Festival, as well as Mipcom.
Lisnard, who is currently campaigning for his re-election next March, outlined the ambitious project called Cannes on Air during a presentation hosted at the CNC (National Film Board) in presence of Maxime Saada, the CEO of Canal Plus Group, and Sidonie Dumas, the chairman of Gaumont, among others.
With an estimated budget of about 500 million euros ($555 million), Cannes on Air would significantly upgrade several key sites, including the Palais des Festivals with the creation of a new theatre of 1,000 metre-square and the renovation of the Salon des Ambassadeurs for an estimated cost of 62 million euros ($69 million).
Among the plans are the building of a multiplex called Cineum Cannes with 12 state-of-the-art screens and a total 2,426 seats. This multiplex, which boast the biggest screen in southwestern France, is expected to open in June 2020.
Cannes on Air is also calling for the creation of studios, as well as production and post-production services to tap into the large volume of film and TV shoots which amounted to 607 days in southern France last year. An international museum dedicated to the history of film and the Cannes Film Festival is also part of the initiative, along with the Bastide Rouge, a technology park featuring a new university dedicated to film, TV, video games and web creation.
Located on the French Riviera, Cannes is the home of the iconic film festival since 1946, as well as the TV markets MipTV, Mipcom, Midem, Cannes Lions and most recently Canneseries since 2018.