The Balagov correction has to stay alive because Cannes is built to erase corrections. Thursday's paper said plainly that Butterfly Jam screened in Directors' Fortnight, not Competition, and that the reception was mixed-to-poor rather than Palme-track.

Friday's brief is less about the film than about the newsroom habit Cannes punishes. Variety's Directors' Fortnight lineup kept the Balagov item in the sidebar lane. [1] Variety's review of Butterfly Jam likewise treated it as Balagov's English-language debut outside the main Competition race. [2] IndieWire's broader Cannes coverage is about jury politics, not Balagov's placement, which is exactly how the mistake can return. [3]

Festival writing runs on grids, rumors and badges. A director's reputation can jump a sidebar boundary in one sentence, and a correction can vanish under the next premiere. X accelerates that error by turning every early grade into a status verdict. MSM can do the same with roundup compression.

The useful Cannes line today is small and stern: Balagov is not in Competition. The paper already made that mistake once. It should not manufacture a sequel.

That is not defensiveness. It is the minimum courtesy owed to a reader trying to understand a festival built from overlapping programs.

-- CAMILLE BEAUMONT, Los Angeles