FACT CHECK: Misleading media reports claim Assam’s Joi Barua has won an award at The Cannes Film Festival

News of a popular Singer-Composer from Assam, Joi Barua bagging an award at a prestigious film festival for the background music of an animated film has gone viral on Social media. The news went viral after a media organization, The Assam Tribune, published a Facebook post on its official account with the caption: 

“Assamese singer Joi Barua has won the ‘Best Soundtrack’ Award at the Cannes Film Festival. He won the award for his composition “New Song Order” for the animation film ‘Fantasy of Companionship between Human and Inanimate’.

#TheAssamTribune  #CannesFilmFestival

Joi Barua 

Sarbananda Sonowal 

Festival de Cannes”

Original Post: Facebook | Archived Link

The post was shared with an image of Singer, Composer Joi Barua performing and has the text “Assamese singer Joi Barua wins award at Cannes Film Festival.”

Posted at 4.33pm on 24 March, the post has 259 interactions, 11 comments and 17 shares. 

Other Facebook users have also posted the same information with similar captions. Original Post: Facebook | Archived Link

Fact Crescendo found that the information is misleading as the festival where the project bagged the award is not the more popular Cannes Film Festival but is the Cannes World Film Festival. Here are the details:

Fact Check Methodology:

At first we got in touch with Joi Barua himself, who told us that some of the reports published by the regional media are factually incorrect. He informed us that he has noted down the important points about the recognition in a Facebook Post. 

The caption of the post shared on March 21 at 10:32pm reads: “So PROUD!!!

The ‘Fantasy of Companionship between Human & Inanimate’ – the animation film which has our songs played by the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices, wins the award for the Best Soundtrack at the ‘CANNES WORLD FILM FESTIVAL’, FEB ‘21.

Also it makes a clean sweep of the various other awards. 

Thank you all !!!!!

#SusanLim #ManuMartin #ChristinaTeenzTan #MatthieuEmyard #JeromeBuigues #FredericRiviere #TeddJoselson #ArthurFagen #SamudraKajalSaikia #MicheleDrees #RonDanziger”

He also told Fact Crescendo that the award wasn’t given for a song “New Song Order” as published by a few media outlets in the region. He clarified that they won the award for the Best Soundtrack. 

Following this, we looked up the website of the Cannes World Film Festival and saw that it is a Gold FilmFreeway Festival and an IMDb Qualifying monthly & annual competition of all genres for international filmmakers. 

Screenshot, Cannes World Film Festival Official Website

Click here to visit the website of the Cannes World Film Festival. 

Following this, we saw that the Wikipedia page of The Cannes Festival mentions it was called the International Film Festival (Festival international du film) until 2003 and is known in English as the Cannes Film Festival. It is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around the world. Founded in 1946, the invitation-only festival is held annually (usually in May) at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. 

Click here to go to Wikipedia page on Cannes Film Festival. 

Click here to visit the official  website of the Cannes Film Festival. 

The Cannes World Film Festival where Joi’s work won the recognition is not the same as the Cannes Film Festival.

Result:

Singer, Composer Joi Barua was a part of the team that won the Best Soundtrack award at the Cannes World Film Festival and not Cannes Film Festival. The two festivals are held at the same city, Cannes but are different festivals. The information that Joi Barua won an award at the Cannes Film Festival for a song titled “New World Order” is misleading.