Another Year in Cannes – Always More Films to Watch & Argue About | FirstShowing.net

Another Year in Cannes – Always More Films to Watch & Argue About

by Alex Billington
May 27, 2025

The art of attending a film festival as a film critic is a strange endeavor. We march from room to room every single day, spending hours in the darkness watching light dance off a screen. We watch stories of old, and of new, depicted for us in glimmering majesty, hand-crafted (and digitally crafted as well) by artisans of magic and plot. We bicker and argue and discuss what matters and what doesn’t, wondering whether any of it matters. What is it that draws us these stories? What stories make us speak loudly? Does this ceremonial procession through the grand halls of cinema have a meaning beyond our own selfish desires to be the one to witness each story, to experience the sensation of emotions together yet still before the rest of the world has a chance to join in on these celebrations. We spend weeks living in rented apartments and hotel rooms dedicated to our craft – of sitting quietly, patiently, participating in the glory of cinema and the art of debate and the fascination of storytelling. These stories matter but does our place within these stories matter? Only if we have something to add to them, only if we can join the conversation with a worthwhile opinion or two.

Who are we to think we matter? We’re just film critics… Who are we to think we’re important? We’re regular people, too… Ready with our notepads and pens, ready with our laptops and mini-recorders and cell phones and Letterboxd accounts, prepared to tear down the film and everyone in it. Prepared to be honest, and tell it like it is, and speak without being told what to say or what to praise or what to ignore. Ready to rave – but only when necessary. Which, at a film festival, happens more often than not. And here’s the thing – we’re film geeks, too. We’re all cinephiles who have flown in from around the world to be there. We’re die-hard film lovers who throw away money just to sit in the same room as all the celebrities and/or with all the other film geeks / film critics who came to town. There’s no need to hate us, no need to get upset with us, no need to be bothered by us, just because we are paid to say this film is bad, and this one is good. Each and every one of us is spending time and money and effort and energy to be there, to participate in this annual rite of passage. A trip to cinema heaven. We all love films as much as anyone, and want to encounter stories we’ve never seen before, cinema that challenges us & makes us reconsider what we know, what we’ve seen before.

Film festivals are a funny thing when you actually stop and think about it. No other festival or event in the world lasts two weeks. Brazil’s Carnival only lasts 5 days. Most concert festivals are 3 or 4 days. Comic-Con only lasts 5 days. Film festivals are the only major cultural events that run for two full weeks (or even longer like the New York or Seattle Film Festivals), starting on Tuesday (or Wednesday or Thursday depending on the festival) and ending the following weekend on Saturday or Sunday. Film critics and movie lovers, more than any else, subject themselves to the exhaustion of living in the festival town for two weeks and attending endless screenings day after day – upwards of five or six films in a day. Imagine going to a concert that went on for two weeks straight. And every day there were 4 or 5 bands you went to watch live. That’s a bit like how it is to be at a film festival. Sure, there’s also the glamour and glory, and the South of France is a beautiful place to be (most festival towns are beautiful). Many film critics survive on diets of croissants and coffee, along with a kebab or two and whatever other food they can grab from the grocery store in between screenings. I believe it’s a great feat of stamina to pull off being a film lover at a film festival for two weeks.

Whenever I’m in Cannes, I am always inspired by Roger Ebert and his iconic Cannes book “Two Weeks in the Midday Sun: A Cannes Notebook” (which I gave away copies of at Cannes a few years ago). Though the diary I’m writing in my mind every year at Cannes is called “Two Weeks in the Mediterranean Sun” instead, mostly because I’m try not to get sunburned while waiting for the next screening to begin. Please let us in, monsieur usher! It’s too hot out. After 15 years at Cannes it feels like coming home every two weeks. I know every street, every corner, every shop, every bakery, every market, every secret entrance; all my favorites in town know me too, always welcoming me back with an excited “Alex! Ca va?!” Cannes is a place where cinema thrives, but so do arguments, conversations, discussions, and more. Croissant flakes fly back & forth as critics debate if that film is really that bad, or if they were just too tired to appreciate it. Maybe a bit of both? Maybe not… At least we were all there to experience it. Sitting together in the (in)famous Salle Debussy, a thousand of us gather in the darkness to sit entranced as the film is revealed for the first time on screen in front of an enraptured audience. We will love it? Will we hate it? Will we be indifferent? Find out in about ~2 hours. Although this is Cannes, so let’s be honest, most films there are nearly 3 hours long.

Every critic’s favorite past-time is arguing about films. To be frank, it’s unavoidable, an inevitable aspect of forming an opinion. It’s rare that any two critics are ever in agreement – though it does happen. The endless arguments and discussions represent the very idea of film criticism – one person’s subjective opinion is something they learn to express as a career, and thus must defend when confronted by a different subjective opinion. This is the way. It wouldn’t be a real profession if it wasn’t this way. More importantly, it wouldn’t be an honest profession if it wasn’t this way. I am proud to admit that I disagree with many film critics that also just so happen to be my friends. I also disagree with many film critics that are decidedly not my friends. But I enjoy them all anyway. I have the utmost respect for anyone who comes to Cannes just to watch films. Not to gawk at celebrities, not to network with the industry, but to spend time in cinemas and watch watch watch. What the hell is a film festival for if not to engage with cinema? What was I doing these last weeks? Watching films. Tons of them – over 40 films over 14 days. And I look forward to arriving in Cannes again next May and doing it all over again. There is no where else I’d rather be, this festival has my heart (and so do French croissants). Even if we don’t agree about the films, cinema is what unites us. Always be watching.

The best cinema moment of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival for me? When all of us emerged from the late night press screening premiere of Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and you could see the huge smiles beaming on everyone’s faces. Finally, we all gasped with joy, finally we witness the best film of the festival, and finally, almost all of us were in agreement in exclaiming – this is a brilliant film. Let’s celebrate it! Let’s celebrate cinema now and forever. Cannes may only last two weeks every year in May, but it continues to be the elegant festival where filmmakers and films shine bright. And they will shine on in other theaters around the world the rest of the year, dazzling audiences from every country. Stories that need to be shared. I can’t wait to celebrate all of these films and so many others – just make sure you take the time to appreciate them when they come your way. But for now, it’s time to wrap up my #Cannes2025 coverage and get some much needed rest & relaxation. For the next major film festival (Venice) is always waiting just around the corner…

Find more posts in: Cannes 25, Discuss, Editorial, Foreign Films, Indies