By Faith Jarrell
Elm Staff Writer
The Cannes Film Festival, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, takes place next month from May 16 to May 27. Founded in 1956, the annual competition received its name from the location in which the event is held: Cannes, France.
Interest for this year’s event was ignited after its line-up was released on April 13. According to The Hollywood Reporter,this year the festival will host a number of highly-anticipated films, including Wes Anderson’s upcoming “Asteroid City” and Martin Scorcese’s long-awaited “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Films entered into Cannes have the chance to win the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) — the event’s most coveted prize. A number of previous winners, including “Parasite” and “Triangle of Sadness,” went on to be nominated for or win best picture at the Academy Awards.
Despite the event’s prestige and popularity, many people still do not know how movies secure distribution after film festivals.
While thousands of films are submitted to the Cannes Film Festival annually, only about 3% of these get chosen to be shown at the festival itself by its selection committee, according to Backstage Magazine.
However, not all film festivals are as exclusive as the Cannes. Visiting professor of Communications and Media Studies Dr. Stephanie Brown suggests checking out smaller film festivals.
“The smaller regional festivals might be cool to look at — like Baltimore’s film festival. Philadelphia also has some really cool festivals that cater to specific audiences — like queer film fests and Black film fests — that are more about spotlighting smaller artists,” Dr. Brown said.
Less film distributors attend smaller festivals, but they can still be a good opportunity for those who want to share their work with a specific community. Film distributors, which can include organizations from film studios to online streaming services, and even movies that go straight to DVD, are the first step in getting a film seen by a larger audience.
These film distributors often attend major film festivals looking for films to buy for distribution and further release, according to Amy Johnson. At some festivals, such as Cannes, the filmmakers themselves can make deals with distributors directly, but sometimes the filmmakers are contacted by the distributor and not vice-versa.
Once the film has secured distribution, there is a licensing distribution between the filmmaker and the distribution company in which the filmmaker sells the rights to their film.
The distribution company then decides how they will distribute the film, whether it will be shown in theaters or go to a streaming platform, or even be released as DVD. However, this is not a simple process.
According to writer Kevin Hall, “Distributors have a key decision to make regarding how many prints of a movie to order. Factors like the audience, the studio behind the movie, and star power all factor into this decision.”
If a film is not chosen for distribution at a festival, it does not mean the end for it. Festivals are excellent for just getting a filmmaker’s name and work out there.
“I think they’re still very important for getting a foothold in the industry – even in the streaming era — [especially] because Amazon and Netflix are picking up films at the festivals. It’s also prestigious to have your film screened and it gives you capital in the industry that is much harder to gain by just releasing your film online or trying to find an audience through grassroots means,” Dr. Brown said.
Photo caption: The Palme D’Or is considered one of the most prestigious honors in the Western film industry. Previous winners include “Pulp Fiction,” “All That Jazz,” and “Taxi Driver.”
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.