People come to Cannes for different reasons. Unless you’re “just hanging”, you want to meet people and pick up leads and tips at Cannes. So outside of meetings I have a tendency to check out the receptions, conferences and networking events. The American Pavilion, Kodak and UK Film Centre have great conference programmes. Over the coming days, here are some [...]

We often get asked about how to attend screenings at the Cannes festival. The short answer is yes, there is a way. And it’s called Cannes Cinephile, a programme that enables locals and visitors to possibly catch a screening or two. The locals are given special treatment. If they sign up for a badge by March 5 2010, they are [...]

It’s easy to forget that Cannes is also an important hub for African cinema. Each year, it hosts the International Festival of Pan-African cinema. The same organisers are now also hosting regular events throughout the year, such as the upcoming screening of a Togolese film on September 25. The event will feature a showing of “Point de suture”, a drama [...]

Attending the Cannes film market 2009 was rather like attending the Midem music trade fair around the year 2000. Although the market is suffering from a serious funding problem, the single major issue is not being addressed. Nine years ago, major label music executives had heard about MP3 files and basically chose a combination of either of three options: 1) [...]

The International Festival of Pan-African film in Cannes, which celebrates the best cinema from Africa and the African diaspora, has announced the following results. The Dikalo for the best full-length feature: “Izulu de Lami, My Secret Sky” by Madoda Ncayiyana – South Africa 2008 The Dikalo for the best fiction short: “The Birthday Party” by Véronique N. Doumbé – 6’36 [...]

Anyone attending the Cannes fest with a project might be interested in reading about Tunerz. This is a project I put together with Gaétan Cardella last year, where we presented an outline and some collateral to a number of partners. It’s interesting as we are mining a niche, Europe’s tuning scene, that offers lots of promotional potential. We have been [...]

The 6th Festival International du Film Panafricain will kick off on April 1 with a gala event at the Hotel Carlton. The festival showcases cinema and fashion from across Africa and the diaspora and will this year feature some 40 films. Director and journalist Ramatou Keita is this year’s honorary president. Extra events during the festival include Cinéma, Slam et [...]

During the festival, Cannes is the absolute capital of the movie business. One of the reasons is the unparalleled networking. On Sept 4, a networking event will be held at Le Fumoir in Paris. I’m a firm beleiver in networking, as nothing beats picking up info and tips from people in the business (and of course, don’t forget to give [...]

The other film festival in Cannes, the International Pan-African Film festival, will kick off this year on April 18 with a special reception on the beach of the Noga Hotel. Guests this year include Marie-Ange Banbancourt, Emile Abossolo MBO, Roger Cantin, Wyoma, Oxaï Roura and Serge Diantantu. The line-up includes films from across the African diaspora (notably a strong selection [...]

One of the most recurrent questions we receive this time of the year is, “How can I attend screenings at Cannes?” If you’ve looked around the net, you probably came up with a blank on this one. So here’s the inside deal: there are ways, but it’s not quite the glamorous process you think it is. The Cannes festival is [...]