Greta Gerwig, Jury President of the 77th Cannes Film Festival interacts with fans while arriving at the Hotel Martinez on the eve of the opening of the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi

Ahead of the opening night of the 77th Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, organizers opened up about security measures being taken to protect jurors and festival-goers from anti-Israel activists and protesters who might try to cause havoc at the event.

“This year, we’ve had 15 security briefings compared with only four or five last year, so I can tell you it’s a very serious matter,” Cannes Film Festival General Secretary Francois Desrousseaux said at a pre-festival press conference, as reported by Variety. “We also have AI-powered cameras around the Palais for the first time, and we’ve also starting using new AI safety gates.”

The festival is taking extra steps this year to prevent activists from causing unrest that could disrupt the event, which is what happened at the recent Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden. Thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators took to the streets of Malmo to protest Israel’s participation in the international competition and even protested outside the hotel of Israeli contestant Eden Golan. Her performances in the Eurovision semifinals and grand finals were also booed by pro-Palestinian supporters in the audience, one of whom waved a Palestinian flag and as a result was escorted out of the venue. Golan ultimately finished the Eurovision Song Contest in fifth place.

The short film “It’s Not Time For Pop” by Amit Vaknin is the only film from Israel taking part in the Cannes Film Festival this year. It will compete in the La Cinéf section, which highlights projects from film schools.

At the press conference before the festival’s opening night, Cannes Film Festival Director Thierry Frémaux was asked about a possible threat of anti-Israel protests disrupting the festival and why no Israeli films are in the main competition this year. He replied, “The selection is based on the films we see. It’s an artistic choice, made independently of anything that doesn’t have to do with cinema.”

Organizers of the Cannes Film Festival have also hired private security personnel to follow jurors of the competition — which include Greta Gerwig, Eva Green, and Lily Gladstone — to keep activists from getting near them, Variety noted. The festival additionally announced that it will not participate in the distribution of pins that show support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and also pins that pay tribute to the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 that remain in captivity.

“There is no polemic this year,” said Frémaux. “There are polemics outside the festival, but they do not come from the festival.”

The city of Cannes banned protests along the Croisette and its surrounding areas during the 11-day film festival, which will take place from May 14-25. The Israeli Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival is expected to remain open and the annual Shabbat dinner in Cannes for members of the film industry will also take place as planned, its organizer Gadi Wildstron told Variety.

“In 2014, when there was another war in in Gaza, and we had a Shabbat dinner at the kosher restaurant called Tovo,” Wildstrom told the publication. “And the French army blocked off the road and were standing at both sides of the street with machine guns. The French are unlike the American authorities and European authorities. They don’t accept anything.”