We’ve just returned from the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the 72nd offering of the world’s most prestigious film gathering. Boon Jong-ho’s superb Parasite walked away with the prestigious Palme d’Or on Saturday night, following 12 days of film screenings and talks. Highlights included the world premieres of Dexter Fletcher’s Rocketman, and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, as well as the new Robert Eggers film The Lighthouse with Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe in Directors’ Fortnight, and dozens of others across the various strands. It’s an amazing festival, but sadly it is one that is not open to the general public – purely press and industry, but this year, the festival organisers continued to offer a new program for younger film fans and film students – 3 Days In Cannes, a unique, 3-day pass giving access to a dedicated programme from the Official Selection (Competition, Out of Competition, Special Screenings, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Classics, Cinéma de la plage) and to the Palais des Festivals, the massive theatre/events space at the heart of proceedings.
Photo: La Pointe courte © 1994 Agnès Varda and her children, Montage and design: Flore Maquin / www.flore-maquin.com
3 Days In Cannes, which was first launched in 2018 at the 71st festival, operated during the second week of this year’s festival and seemed to be a huge success judging from the various attendees I spoke to before I left last Saturday. The programme was open to 18-28-year-olds; ‘cinema lovers, enthusiasts, film buffs, collectors, diehard fans, aficionados, the curious, the greedy, gourmets, admirers, and obsessives.’ Hundreds of attendees seemed to take up the festival on this unique offering, sampling the delights of possibly the best Cannes for many years (in my opinion). It was great seeing bloggers and film students get passionate about movies, filing copy in the cafes and bars around town, and talking with some of them and giving advice about how to break into the industry. They are possibly more versed in cinema than me, but it was great speaking with film students over the few days and gave whatever advice I had in addition to their courses. Naturally, there are many writing assistance resources online like PapersOwl UK or websites giving advice on writing film reviews and getting into the industry, but there’s nothing like getting amongst the professionals on the front-line; talking to people working in film at one of the biggest gatherings on film folk on the planet.
Cannes is a very exclusive event, but this new programme must be applauded for letting in the future generation of film critics, journalists, interviewers and filmmakers – and obviously film fans in general, too. It really gave all of them a taste of covering one of the world’s biggest, most lavish festivals, and the best in new world cinema and mainstream movies.
I really hope 3 Days In Cannes continues in the future. I have been lucky enough to attend the festival for a few years now and, if this was offered to me when I was in that age bracket – sadly, I’m way over the age of 28 – I would have jumped at the chance. While Cannes is frequently looked down on for being stuck in its old ways and not moving with the times, there really is nowhere else on the planet like it, and it sometimes does something like this which really makes it stand out from the rest even further. Lomg may it continue.
