Having worked at Insight News to the tune of almost 5 years, I’m beyond excited to have the opportunity to share with you my personal adventures as a journalist and intern at the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival. I intend to bring Insight News readers an inside perspective on what the cou de gra of film festivals is all about.
This morning the festival opened up with a bang in Cannes, France with an outpour of media, celebrities, and business professionals gearing up their engines to ignite some of the biggest business deals in the world and showcase their various works that had to jump through a dozen and a half hoops to make its way to this Mediterranean mainstay.
So far Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Sean Penn, and Tilda Swinton passed down the red carpet to prepare for their respective film premieres. The big opening film tonight at the Palais, is none other than Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” a film in which a pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them. Unfortunately, the demand to get in this film is far greater than my tiny dot in the journalist/intern world, so I won’t be able to catch this amazing masterpiece, however, I look forward to bringing you some inside details on many of the other films that will be playing at the festival.
From the outside perspective, Cannes looks like it’s all just glitz, glamour and beautiful people coming together to premiere their films for critics and their entertainment peers, however, those working on the inside, which I have been lucky enough to be doing this year, have discovered that Cannes is moreover a place to bring your visual masterpiece to either compete for a prestigious title which ups its value when it enters the indie theaters, or like the other 90% of films, you showcase your work in the market in order to obtain a distribution deal from one of the 100+ companies that come to Cannes to find the next Pariah, or the next Restless City.
As an intern at Cannes, I am working in the PR and Social Media department where I’ll be publicizing and finding new and intriguing ways to share what is happening daily at the Cannes American Pavilion. The Pavilion in short is like a backstage lounge where all the stars come to unwind, relax, get educated, connect and do business. They also are responsible for hosting a myriad of events and panels that are slated for film professionals and guests of the Pavilion to come and get the perspective of what it takes to make a film or learn more about one of the movies showing at the prestigious Palais Theater.
In the past, the panels have included actors such as Ryan Gosling, Andie McDowell, Terrance Malick and many others. This year the Pavilion is looking forward to offering panels with Tim Roth, Lee Daniels, Sean Penn and other individuals who are scheduled to stop in and bring their dynamic stories to our guests. Tomorrow we will be the backdrop for the Today Show with Ann Currie, and on Friday, we’ll be hosting a special Today Show interview with Sean Penn.
Please stay tuned for Insight News’ daily recap of the events happening here at Cannes.
