CANNES – FILM OR FASHION?

The month of May is a significant month in global pop culture. Every year elite film persons from across the world converge on the sun-soaked shores of the French Riviera, transforming the quaint town of Cannes into and epicentre to celebrate film, fashion and culture. 31 May 1939, marks the birth of this festival which went on to become one of the most sought after film festivals in the World.

Unlike other film festivals, Cannes doesn’t intend to celebrate only a niche genre of cinema. The festival encourages experimental cinema and aims to let the language of film transcend cultural divide. The Festival’s aim is to encourage the development of the cinematographic art in all its forms, and create and foster a spirit of collaboration between all film-producing countries.

Diving into archives gives one much needed insight on the nature of the Cannes festival during its inception. What the world perceives the festival to be do , is not what it was back then. In fact, a bold claim can be made that the festival has lost its purpose over decades and the way it is conducted today is not the way the Founders would want it to be. 

Somewhere over decades, the focus of the festival underwent a drastic shift. Today, the festival seems to be more about grandeur, media attention and most importantly fashion. Taking this year’s Cannes under study , one can see that the media writes and publishes more stories about the guests, their outfits and the designers who made these outfits rather than the films and the awards. Over year the guest list has also undergone dilution in the form of influencers, philanthropists, supermodels and various such people who are irrelevant to the film industry. 

While this may seem like a rather critical view of the age old film festival, this view can be substantiated by the writer. When the public are asked what they know about the Cannes Film Festival , most assume the it is a fashion event for the elite with social gatherings and exquisite cuisine. Surprisingly, but not unexpectedly, many people are oblivious to the fact the Cannes at its core, is a film festival and nothing more. During the course of the festival, social media platforms like Instagram and X are flooded with reposts of the outfits worn by the guests at Cannes but it is rare to find people reposting about the films that win awards.

The early editions of this festival saw attendees arrive in simple yet elegant and presentable clothes while they watched, discussed and applauded ground-breaking cinema while networking and growing their connections. Outfits were not the highlight of the event, cinema was.

Media attention and Instagram trends were not the motivating factor behind their arrival to the festival. In 1976 , an Indian film, Nishant was nominated for the Palme D’Or. The cast, Shyam Benegal, Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi flew to the festival from India and showed up in their own sarees. This is an example of how they let their work speak and how they honoured the power of cinema above everything else. 

Fortunately, even though the way the festival is conducted has been tainted over years, the festival is still a platform that rewards, identifies and encourages the art of filmmaking and we hope that this vision continues for decades to come.

- Khevna Reddy