The festival is a 10-day ballet of spectacle and film where the photographers wear tuxedos, standing ovations are timed with stopwatches and movies tend to be referred to by the names of their directors. Photo / Getty Images
The festival is a 10-day ballet of spectacle and film where the photographers wear tuxedos, standing ovations are timed with stopwatches and movies tend to be referred to by the names of their directors. Photo / Getty Images
From the Palm Dog and standing ovations to juries and dress codes, grasping some of Cannes’ quirks and traditions can help you understand what’s happening. Here’s everything you need to know about the Cannes Film Festival - a much-celebrated event for cinema.
The Cannes Film Festival is hallowedground in cinema but understanding its unique landscape can be confounding.
The Cote d’Azur festival, which kicked off Tuesday, is a 10-day ballet of spectacle and film where even the photographers wear tuxedos, standing ovations are timed with stopwatches and movies tend to be referred to by the names of their directors - “the Almodovar,” “the Malick,” “the Coppola.”
From the outside, it can seem mad. From the inside, it can be hardly less disorienting. But grasping some of Cannes’ quirks and traditions can help you understand just what is unspooling in the south of France and what, exactly, a Palm Dog is.
Ethann Isidore, left, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge pose for photographers upon departure from the premiere of the film 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
The short answer is that Cannes is the largest and arguably most significant film festival, and few care more deeply about the art of cinema than the French. This is where cinema was born and it’s where it’s most closely guarded. It’s not a coincidence that to enter the Palais des Festivals, the central hub, you must climb 24 red-carpeted steps, as if you’re ascending into some movie nirvana.
Cannes is also singularly global, attracting filmmakers, producers and journalists from around the world. It’s a little like an Olympics for film; countries set up their own tents in an international village. Because Cannes is also the largest film market in the world, many who come here are trying to sell their movies or looking to buy up rights. Deal-making, though not quite the frenzy it once was, happens in hotel rooms along the Croisette, aboard yachts docked in the harbour and, yes, on Zoom calls.
But aside from being a beacon to filmmakers and executives, Cannes is a draw for its shimmering French Riviera glamour. Since the days of stars like Grace Kelly and Brigitte Bardot, Cannes has been renowned as a sun-kissed centre stage for fashion.
How old is Cannes?
Originally called the International Film Festival, Cannes was born in the lead-up to World War II. Venice had launched the first major film festival in 1932, but in 1938, fascist influence on Venice was pervasive. The French government in 1939 chose the tourist destination of Cannes as the place for a new festival - though because of the war, the first edition wasn’t held until 1946. This year’s festival is the 77th edition.
French actress Brigitte Bardot besieged by fans at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. Photo / Getty Images
What is it like on the ground?
The hive of activity is the Palais, a massive complex by the sea full of cinemas with names like Bunuel, Bazin and, the granddaddy, the Grand Theatre Lumiere. This is where the red carpet runs in Cannes, nightly hosting two or three world premieres beneath a glass canopy flanked by rows of photographers. Festival cars ferry stars and directors who are ushered down the carpet and up the steps. Unlike most movie premieres, there are no reporters on the carpet.
Filmmakers and casts instead face questions from the media the day after their premieres, at a press conference preceded by a photo call. The press conferences can be atypically newsy, too; after Danish director Lars von Trier made controversial comments at a Cannes press conference in 2011, he was named “persona non grata” by the festival for years.
Michelle Yeoh walks the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023. Photo / AP
Interpreters translate live for headphone-wearing reporters. Inside the Palais, bleary-eyed attendees are treated to gratis espresso.
Down the Croisette, the oceanside, palm tree-lined promenade of Cannes, there are regal old hotels like the Carlton and the Martinez from where festival attendees flow in and out, interviews might be happening on balconies as autograph-seeking fans gather outside in throngs. After-parties are typically held in clubs across the Croisette, by the beach.
Who attends?
Unlike public festivals like Toronto or SXSW, Cannes is industry-only and largely out of reach for most moviegoers. That doesn’t stop the desperate, tuxedo-clad ticket seekers who hold signs outside the Palais on the chance someone has an extra, or the photo-takers who stand on small ladders near the red carpet.
Cannes is rigorously hierarchical, with a system of colour-coded badges regulating access. If you hear about a film being booed at Cannes - even Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver was famously jeered before winning the Palme d’Or - it’s usually at a press screening.
Martin Scorsese, Jodie Foster and Robert de Niro at a press conference for Taxi Driver at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, where the film won the Palme d'Or trophy. Photo / Getty Images
The premieres, largely attended by industry professionals, are where the prolonged standing ovations take place. But this, like many things at Cannes, is a bit of stagecraft to boost the mythology. After the credits roll, a cameraman rushes in, with his footage fed live to the screen. He goes down the aisles, giving the audience a chance to applaud for the director and each star. No one is just cheering for a dark movie screen.
What does ‘in competition’ mean?
Cannes hierarchy is in the lineup, too. Attention focuses most on the films “in competition”: usually around 20 movies competing for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top award. Past winners include Apocalypse Now, Pulp Fiction and Parasite. Last year, it went to Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall. Winners are chosen by a jury of nine that changes every year. This year’s is presided over by Greta Gerwig.
This year's jury president is Barbie director Greta Gerwig. Photo / Getty Images
Competition is only one section, though. Many high-profile films might play out of competition, as Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is this year. Un Certain Regard gathers a lineup of original or daring films. First and second films play in the sidebar Critics’ Week. There are also midnight selections and the recently launched Premiere sidebar, which also takes some overflow for films that didn’t fit into the competition. Restorations and documentaries play in Cannes Classics.
And down the Croisette, separate from the official selection, is the Directors’ Fortnight or the Quinzaine, a parallel showcase launched in 1969 by a group of French filmmakers after the 1968 Cannes was cancelled.
There are many other prizes, too, even an unofficial one created by journalists called the Palm Dog (sadly, not the Palme D’Og), for the best canine in Cannes. Last year, that honour went to Messi, the Anatomy of a Fall pooch.
Messi captivated the carpet on opening day this year. Photo / Getty Images
Created in 2001, the annual award and its spinoff categories are decided by a jury of reporters. Past winners have included Uggie from The Artist (2011) and Sayuri, who played the heroic pit bull in Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood (2019).
As for the reigning champ, Messi captivated the carpet on opening day this year, in town again as a correspawndent of sorts for French television.
