“I am off to see the Wizard” - and survived to tell the tale…

Already in the airport you know who is on their way to the Cannes Film Festival. Because people who work in the film industry do not look like regular business men or women and they don’t look like tourists either.

My daily work is a mix between being a manager, taking care of staff and the daily running of the business as well as being the person in charge of programming. It means that on a daily basis the programming, selection and screening of film might not always get top priority.
Therefore I arrive two days before the festival starts. I pick up my accreditation, the festival screening schedules and start planning.
The following two days I stay in the apartment, I don’t go out, I read magazines, the festival catalogue, surf the web and compare it all with the notes I’ve brought from home. The purpose is to try to figure out which films I am going to see within the next 10 days. And since there are hundreds to choose from, and since at a good festival I can manage to watch about 40, it’s important to make the right selection.

The Cannes Film Festival is all about networking, gossiping and prioritizing. Do you know what’s going on, where it’s happening and can you get in?
To get access to the film screenings, you got to have a badge and the higher priority that badge has, the better it is. The ultimate one being a “marked badge with a purple stripe” because its gives you priority access to the screenings, (and tickets) which means you will be allowed to enter the cinema or screening rooms before others with a lower priority badge. That is important because sometimes there are a lot more people waiting in line, than there are seats in the auditoriums.

The Cannes Film festival is operating on many levels, one is what you se on television or read about in newspapers and magazines. Film stars and so called celebrities walking up and down the red carpet. In “my festival” that is a sidebar, because attending screenings in the Festival-Palais, at least in the evening, is a lot of work. You have to dress up and, “we”, the mortals who do not arrive in a festival limousine, have to stand in line for a long time just to get in. (Even though you have a ticket!) Another peculiar thing is, that from the balcony, where I am seated, you cannot see the ground floor and therefore not the celebrities seated below you. That means that the only stars I see are projected onto a big video screen, showing the audience already seated in the auditorium, what is going on outside on the steps of the Palais. I usually bring a couple of the daily festival magazines to read while I am waiting. French celebrities are a little bit boring to a Dane, first and foremost, because you have no idea who they are.

Attending the Film Market (Marche Du Film), most films you watch are shown in one of the smaller screening room in the Festival-Palais or in one of three ordinary cinemas throughout Cannes city. Sometimes you attend private screenings and as long as you are invited all is very well. The real challenge is to get in when you are not invited. It can be difficult, but absolutely not impossible. First and foremost you have to look like you belong and having an appropriate and impressive business card is very good (its okay to use one that is not your own, just make sure it has a relevant company logo). If that doesn’t work, you have to find the soft spot. That can be a trainee watching the entrance door and, when they (for obvious reasons) cannot find you on the invitation list, you make a scene. (That doesn’t work with “old rats”, they will just say: “I am sorry madam, who did you say you were working for?…”)
Another technique is to wait until the confusion around the entrance is total, which happens when too many people are trying to get in, but are not allowed. When you spot someone who you believe to actually be invited (you will know because they are shouting “Hi, Bill!” to the “old rat” attending the door), then you have to move fast and place yourself right behind this person - in the slipstream so to speak. If I have options, I choose a male, tall and between 30 and 40 and as he is pushing himself through the lump of people waiting, waving his business card shouting “I am with XX-company!” (meaning: I am very, very important!), I will be right behind him mumbling “I am with him, I am with him!” and “voila”, I am inside.
The last resort is to see if you can spot someone you know who is already inside and who you believe to have “Hi Bill-status”. Then you will try to get their attention, either by shouting or by calling their cell phone. When you have contact and can see each other, you shout: “Hi Peter” (or whatever the name is), and “Peter” will shout to the “Rat”: “Its okay, she is with me!” and you will be allowed in.
And that is the only thing that matters - to get in. To do so I am willing to weep, shout, cheat or play “damsel in distress”, it doesn’t matter as long as it works.

Having attended the Cannes Film Festival so many times before, my partying days are over. I prefer to go out dining with colleagues or business associates and if they afterwards want to go out partying I go “home” to sit on the balcony with my flatmates, (who are at the same level – so to speak), have a glass of wine, gossip for a while and go to bed.
The only parties I attend are the ones that are relevant to my personal and business connections and where the attendees are mostly Danes or other Scandinavians. Sounds a little boring, but if I don’t limit my partying, it is very difficult for me to get up at 6.30 in the morning and watch 4-5 films through the day. Actually, in my opinion, one of the tricks of surviving the Cannes Film Festival is controlling and fine tuning your ability to hold your liqueur. I do however, allow myself one or two late nights, sometimes with too many G&T´s and I always regret it the next day, but what the h…. were are all humans :-).

After 10 days in the battle zone, time has come to go home. Looking at the people waiting in line at Nice airport, it is easy to recognize the ones that have been attending the festival. Dozens of people looking like zombies, their clothes wrinkled, with hair that’s definitely in need of a comb and blurry eyes, red from lack of sleep, too much alcohol and from watching too many films.

I love to attend the Cannes Film Festival, and I love the hectic atmosphere, love the hunt for “the right film”, the one that to the ordinary cinema audience will be the hot one within three months time. But I love going home too, thinking “wow” I survived jet another festival and lived to tell the tale……