cannes you do the cannes cannes

Festival de Cannes 2019 & 2025 💃🏼

i was living in Paris when Agnès Varda died, Notre Dame burned down, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire premiered at the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival. not my fault! shit was shifting, and Paris was, as ever, the center of the universe.

i found out about Varda’s passing while taking a language placement test at the Alliance Français (A1, quelle dommage) and could smell the actively burning cathedral from the 11^e arrondissement through my host family’s open windows, but nothing felt so monumental as catching the world premiere of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (dir. Céline Sciamma) and knowing i’d witnessed + participated in history.

the year Alejandro González Iñárritu served as jury president and Bong Joon-ho won the Palme d'Or for Parasite was the year my film school hooked me up with two editing internships in Paris, plus a brief intermission from said internships to attend the most prestigious film festival in the world on an all-access badge, why not.

it was a once in a lifetime opportunity in the sense that i never thought i’d do it again – god i love being wrong.

Agnès Varda balancing atop a technician behind the scenes of 'La Pointe Courte' for Cannes 2019

https://letterboxd.com/cuqui/list/cannes-2019/

six years (or 2,132 days of a french duolingo streak later) and i’ve returned to the south of France for the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival!

this year, Juliette Binoche served as jury president and Jafar Panahi won the Palme d'Or for It Was Just an Accident. i daydream about sitting on the Cannes jury the way bright-eyed bushy-tailed law school students do about sitting on the supreme court: harmless, impossible ambitions for another lifetime – but i digress. half the fun of the fest is speculating with friends which film will take home the gold. if well received at Cannes, some movies will go on to travel the world, while others fade into obscurity + out of our collective memories.

🎟️ 18 films in 7 days

original animations, exquisitely shitty slashers, experimental debuts from actors-turned-directors, commentaries on public health crises + female heirs, and the same old, same old from established auteurs from whom we’ve come to expect nothing less; an overall great slate, mate.

https://letterboxd.com/cuqui/list/cannes-2025/

guilty of putting a 4.5 star movie (Left-Handed Girl dir. Shih-Ching Tsou) above a 5 star movie (Arco dir. Ugo Bienvenu) because i Rate them against my expectations of their potential but i Rank with whimsical disregard for logic + reason. from the subject matter to the context of their countries of origin, i don’t know how a movie could even really begin to “compete” with another. either we like it and it resonates, or we don’t because it doesn’t. we treat them as though they’re at odds when in reality, they exist in fluid conversation within the hearts + minds of audiences.

the beautiful thing about Cannes is even if you catch three movies a day, you somehow manage to hit 20k steps – especially when you’re staying an uphill-walk away from the Palais. sure, you spend six or seven hours planted + reclined in plooshy velvet seats, but you spend the rest of the day strolling the beach eating tomato paninis + violette gelato on the promenade or in the sand. could we live like this forever all the time?

view of the Boulevard de la Croisette from the Salle Agnès Varda

the mademoiselle herself

no one’s doing it like the french when it comes to production value. the decadence! attendants in matching uniforms scan your ticket and lead you to your seat with the wave of a flashlight, heels tak-tak-tak-ing on linoleum all the while. a real respect for theatrics + ambiance.

press conferences and red carpet struts are live-streamed on screens in every building – even the boulangeries. outside, you’re less walking down the street, more swimming against a current of wealth in the form of fancy cars and movie stars and all those other types that gravitate towards fame. jeff bezos’ yacht is docked out at sea, spitting distance, while the models from the dior ads contribute to the same sewer system as you. of course the weather’s perfect, it’s late spring in the Côte d’Azur, where the sick francophile + the twisted cinephile converge into something truly grotesque (enjoyers of Nouvelle Vague dir. Richard Linklater).

at Cannes, movies are being picked up + turned over + chewed up + spit out + bought + sold to the highest bidder. it’s a whole to-do. some folks are really just in it for the love of the game, though, to catch the movies of tomorrow – charli xcx, par exemple.

though we mostly attended press screenings, we did score tickets to one red carpet world premiere (!) for Exit 8 (dir. Genki Kawamura) a Japanese horror film based on a video game. we pulled out the black tie attire we’d packed “just in case” for this midnight screening. cast and crew in attendance not a few rows up & we listened to them listen to our early reactions. as serendipity would have it, the adaptation received an 8 minute standing ovation. we left during the applause, tired but wired. the energy surrounding the screening was electric, making it hard to distinguish whether i loved the movie or loved my life.

a film is a hallucinogenic experience we create in our minds from the sights + sounds offered on a silverscreen platter. it can only meet you halfway, and only if you’re ready + willing. the headspace in which you receive it can just as easily overcast or rose tint your impression of the entire thing. that’s why the celebratory vibe of Cannes is so sacred + why early critic opinions skew divisive. the pomp, the circumstance, they are not to be trifled with.

this year, i got press accreditation thru my partner’s channel to assist with festival coverage. you can watch Karsten’s vlog (and occasionally hear my voice) here:

plus a couple souvenirs i picked up along the way:

whether again as press, as a member of the jury (now there’s a duty i wouldn’t try to get out of), or as a filmmaker in competition, i look forward to setting foot on that time capsule of a small beach town again someday <3

which Cannes 2025 film is your most anticipated?