For as long as I have had an interest in film, the Cannes Film Festival has been my guiding light. I remember learning about how some of my favorite filmmakers had their creative careers boosted and celebrated at the festival, and my life’s dream had become to work on something that wins the esteemed Palme d’Or. I viewed Cannes as both a place where film and art are celebrated, but also as the absurd Oscars for the global cinema world. However, coming to the Cannes Film Festival this year has cemented my life’s dream, but also widened my understanding of the festival and its accessibility to those who just want to appreciate the art being screened.
Cannes is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Never in my life have I seen people dressed in lavish tuxedos and extravagant gowns to sit on their asses and watch a movie. The attire is turned into a show as people ooh and aah at their favorite celebrities walking up the famous Les marches du Palais, along with other members of the film’s hardworking cast and crew who are completely overshadowed by the mere celebrity of it all. One of my most interesting sights at Cannes has been the people in dresses and tuxes who block the walkways for their glam shots with private photographers as everyone tries to walk around them without getting in the shot. There’s also this eerily beautiful Cannes theme song that plays before every screening, which sounds like it’s from some movie, but likely isn’t from any movie at all (Later discovered it’s by Saint-Saens. Neat!). Although it is getting a little old, I must admit it beats seeing trailers and movie theater advertisements before screenings.
Cannes isn’t really centered on the appreciation of film.
It appears that Cannes is more of a place filmmakers go to acquire distribution, or for up-and-coming filmmakers to pitch to producers and execs to receive funding for their creative projects. The actual screenings, which the festival is known for, are fairly inaccessible. Those who are at Cannes for the market aspect get first dibs on most screenings and even get to go to their own market screenings. So, perhaps the best way to access screenings at Cannes is to shell out $500 on a market pass. Even if it doesn’t help you get tickets, at least you’ll get to see a screening of Akiko: The Flying Monkey.
Cannes is a beautiful, picturesque city.
The streets are lined with restaurants that spill their tables out onto the streets. You walk down an alley and are greeted by a beautiful, grandiose fountain. You look down at the ground, and there’s a golden palm encrusted into the pavement. When at the Croisette, take a moment to appreciate the pristine beaches or the mega-yachts off in the sea. My personal highlight is the diverse population of birds. There are these blue and white birds that make a wonderful screeching noise. Then there are the classic pigeons who are not afraid to join you for dinner or graze your hair when they fly above you.
Cannes isn’t easy to navigate.
The layout of the festival is pretty simple: there are four theatres at the Palais des Festivals, two more around the Croisette, a bunch at the Cineum, and then others sprawled around town which screen films only with French subtitles. The Cineum is essentially a classic American multiplex cinema that screens Cannes programming throughout the length of the festival. Due to its various theatres and its distance from the rest of the festival, it is extremely easy to get tickets to screenings there. There is also a Five Guys to fill all your nutritional needs. That being said, the Cineum is a 20-minute Uber or 30-minute bus ride away. Given the sheer pace of life at Cannes, that time can be a killer in both your chances of making it to your Cineum screening or arriving back on the Croisette for whatever you have planned. This means that you often want to plan your days to either be entirely at the Cineum or entirely on the Croisette.
Cannes is equipped with top-of-the-line screening capabilities.
From the Grand Theatre Lumiere to the Cineum IMAX to the Espace Miramar, almost every theatre I’ve been to at Cannes has state-of-the-art projection and audio systems. Almost anywhere you sit in one of these theatres, you will get a pretty good view of the screen and a lovely screening experience. The one theatre I had issues with was the Bunuel Theatre, where I was seated on the far-right side of the screen for Yi Yi, and was having issues with the projection contrast during the screening. The plush and cozy seats made up for that issue, however.
Cannes isn’t interested in maintaining proper theater etiquette.
During the Yi Yi screening on the second day of the festival, which was my first screening, the person next to me spent about 2 hours of the 2-hour 50-minute runtime scrolling through their phone. When this happens at American movie theaters it pisses me off, but I would expect better from the most pretentious film festival in the world. The whole scrolling on your phone thing shortly became a mainstay here at Cannes. Another mainstay at Cannes is the extremely distracting theatre movement. I have yet to attend a screening where everyone sat in their seats for the entire screening. Whether they’re walking out due to a dislike of the film they’re watching or because they have other plans lined up, people walk out at a very steady pace, which is very distracting to the viewing experience. I hate that I have to say this in a blog post on the festival, but Cannes Film Festival needs to put a reminder on the screen beforehand, reminding people of proper movie theater etiquette before every screening.
Cannes is a meeting place of cinephiles from all over the world.
One of the most beautiful aspects of Cannes or any film festival is the fact that people from all over gather in one place for the appreciation, discussion, and business of film. I’ve been able to meet a guy from Severin Films, another person who’s trying to secure financing for her film, a friend of a friend from school, a 15-year-old British kid who is just here for Pedro Pascal, someone from my hometown, a writer who has a film at the Critics’ Week section, and a fellow patron at Club Silencio who desperately needed the music to “GO FASTER!” As Adam Driver famously said, when in Cannes, “go back to the club”, and also wait in line for Eddington for 10 hours because you never know who you could run into.
Cannes isn’t designed with cinephiles in mind.
The ticketing system is a complete joke. The way it works is there is a ticketing website that shows you what tickets are available, but the problem is, every ticket you would want is taken by the time you log onto the website. The way to get tickets is through last-minute tickets, which means that once someone abandons their ticket, you have the opportunity to pick that ticket up. This leads to you, as the person without tickets, having to spend all day refreshing your phone, hoping a new ticket pops up for you to grab. As a USC Cannes Classics cohort, we have been collectively referring to this process as “The Game” which is the closest I’ve gotten to a gambling addiction in my life. My screentime has gone through the roof during Cannes—any free second, I get, I refresh over and over on my phone’s web browser until I achieve some sort of success. If there were some other ways for the festival to do this process so that I do not have to spend every minute stressed out over not having tickets, or often waking up without any tickets lined up, my overall enjoyment of the festival would shoot through the roof. Most of my frustrations toward this experience are just being unable to win this stupid game. When I don’t win the game, I am forced to line up in the last-minute queues outside the theatres for that screening. These queues are just as much as a gamble as “the game”. You could line up for 10 hours for a film with little hype, and not get in, or show up 30 minutes before a premiere with substantial talk around town (Panahi’s A Simple Accident) and get in no problem. Both of these gambling games have led to much celebration and many tears of pain.
Cannes is a once-in-a-lifetime experience I am grateful to be able to attend.
All in all, the Cannes Film Festival is a beast I have never experienced before. I attended the Sundance Film Festival in 2023, and that experience was extremely intense, but so incredibly rewarding. I will process Cannes in a similar way. Due to a lack of sleep and days filled with many frustrations, I have a somewhat bitter view on Cannes, but I can already see how this experience will change me creatively and professionally in terms of what I desire out of a film career. I’ve realized that there’s more to life than a Palme d’Or and that the true beauty of cinema (something I’ve had a hunch on for a while now) is the same as the beauty of all art—bringing humanity together by meditating about life.
Cannes, like most things in life, isn’t all that I was promised.
The most important lesson I’ve learned thus far is that not everything is what you would expect. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and have just had a life-changing time while here. The friendships I’ve made will last a lifetime, and many of the films I’ve seen will stick with me for a while (reviews coming soon—Sirat fans get ready). Over the days, I’ve truly been able to reel in the beauty of the festival and ground my expectations as to what this beast truly is. Cannes isn’t one certain thing in the sense that it’s a jumbled canvas. There are things placed there for you to explore and add to, but the painting at the end is what you make of it. Had I known what it entailed, I would have never sat in line for 10+ hours for Ari Aster’s Eddington. If I knew the toll it would take on my body, I wouldn’t have gone to Club Silencio that night and stayed up until the sun rose. That being said, you live and you learn, and I’m still glad I partake in those experiences as they taught me a lot about myself and where my interests lie in this whole life thing. Now that I see what’s on that jumbled canvas and I better understand the picture I want to make, I view these last few days of the festival with an eager eye. I know what I want out of them and I know how to get it, and I’m just beyond grateful for that privilege. For those out there who are considering attending the festival themselves in the future…DO IT! But do it expecting to learn from it. Embrace the disappointment of not seeing every film you want, and embrace spending hours on your phone refreshing the Cannes Ticket Office website in hopes of getting into that grail of a screening. Embrace the absurdity of it all. Embrace the grandeur and silliness. Embrace the culture of old French men yelling, “THIS IS NOT ART!” outside of a 10 pm screening. Embrace the magic of it all and, most importantly, embrace your individuality and make out of your experience what you can, because you never know if you will get it again.