The biggest drama at this year’s Cannes Film Festival may not be on screen.
France’s most powerful investigative news site, Mediapart, is reportedly set to reveal the names of 10 actors and directors newly accused of #MeToo violations — and it will go down during this year’s festival, which kicks off next week.
According to speculation on French Twitter, an Oscar winner and a filmmaker with a movie in this year’s festival might among those named.
“French cinema is in a cold sweat,” blared a headline in Le Figaro Sunday.
“To say that the cinema world is quivering with anxiety as the Cannes Film Festival approaches is an understatement …” the article read. “Entire artistic teams are trembling, fearing that their work will be trashed under the effect of a new accusation made public during the fortnight.”
Le Figaro also reported that festival president Iris Knobloch has hired a crisis communication agency in advance of the list being released. The Post has reached out to festival organizers.
Longtime Cannes film festival observer and French Riviera blogger Allison Coe was not shocked at hearing about the possible shakeup on the Croisette this year.
“This won’t be the first time that the festival has been rocked by #MeToo revelations so this latest potential bombshell doesn’t surprise me a bit,” Coe told The Post. “The only thing that puzzles me is why it took so long for the latest allegations to come out.”
Lenaig Bredoux, a reporter for Mediapart, told The Post that the news site publishes “investigations” but declined to elaborate on the alleged story in question.
Coincidentally, festival organizers have chosen the short film “Moi Aussi” (literally, “me too” in French) — about survivors of sexual abuse and directed by French actress Judith Godrèche, one of the main #MeToo activists in France — to open the Un Certain Regard selection at the festival.
Godrèche, who is known to American audiences for her co-starring role opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Jeremy Irons in 1998’s “The Man in the Iron Mask,” gave speeches both at the French Cesar awards and in French Parliament this past February about sexual violence in the French film industry.
Earlier this month, the French government launched an investigation into sexual and gender-based violence across the country’s entertainment industry, spurred in large part by Godrèche’s activism.
“This incestuous family in the film industry is just a reflection of all the families” affected by such violence, Godreche told the Senate’s women’s rights committee.
She also filed two complaints of rape with the police against French filmmakers Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon earlier this year.
Godrèche said Jacquot, now 77, raped her during a six-year-long relationship that started when she was 14 and he was 25 years her senior.
She said that Doillon, now 79, who was English actress Jane Birkin’s partner at the time, preyed on her while directing her in one of his films when she was 15, she said on Thursday. He was 44 at the time.
The two have denied the charges.
Along with speaking out publicly in France, Godreche gave her social media followers an email address and urged them to send in their stories.
“Suddenly, before me was a crowd of victims, a reality that also represented France, so many stories from all social backgrounds and generations,” she said in a statement to Cannes.
Meryl Streep will be the guest of honor at the festival’s opening day, May 14. The president of the jury this year is “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig.
Fresh from the Met Gala, Demi Moore is scheduled to host the 30th annual amFAR awards at the Hotel du Cap where Cher will be headlining.
Moore’s also been chosen to be the “godmother” of the Trophée Chopard ceremony for the luxe jeweler at the Carlton Beach Club on May 17.
