Cannes… the true story…. Part 1

OK as per yer requests here is the full brain dump about our time in Cannes.

1. Where is Cannes? Cannes is here.

2. What is Cannes? It’s pretty little coastal city in the South of France. It has hosted an international film festival for the last 62 years. It also hosts an international advertising festival and an international porn film festival. Both of the later can be tawdry… the former is seemingly not completely so. They also host a whole bunch of conventions.

The festival is comprised of three major sections:

1. The Competition

Where the big boys and the quirky boys duke it out for the Palm d’or and Brad and Angelina smile for their fans on the tapis rouge.

2. The Film Market

The is the real reason for the festival… it’s where people buy and sell feature films… from cryptic art films to block busters to slasher movies for mouth breathers… it’s all up for grabs.

3. The Short Film Corner

Walter was entered in the Short Film Corner. There is no competition for non student short films in the main competition.

The Short Film Corner is a market and a convention for short film makers… not altitude challenged directors… but rather those who make short films. Within the Short Film Corner there are a number of competitions. The two major ones are sponsored and organized by Amazon and The National Film Board of Canada. Out of a field of 2000 entrants Walter was chosen as 1 of only 10 finalist in both of these competitions. No other film was chosen for both competitions.

4. How did we do?

We did great. We were finalists in the 2 competitions. The finalists were picked by a very select group of professionals and curators. In both of the competitions the final phase was held online and the winner was selected by the viewers. We did not win these competitions. For me, being a finalist is more than enough.

5. Why were we there?

Well… Cannes is Cannes and it would have been a shame to have not actually participated. Beyond that, in my opinion, there really is no reason for a short film maker to go… if they have not been selected for one of the competitions. The idea is that the short film corner is a marketplace for short films… truth be told the money for short films after the fact is pretty minimal… and most people are now more comfortable working via email. We were in fact told on more than one occasion to make contact by email even though we were at the festival.

6. Where did we stay?

We stayed in Nice which is about 30 minutes away by train. Nice is a very sweet town. I liked it a lot.

7. And what about those French folks?

They were unbelievably wonderful and gracious… no rumored 30 euro beers, no surly waiters… everybody was just swell.