Marché du Film

Measuring Tape Girl screened today at 11:30am in the Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival. It screened in a thematic program of short films selected by a Danny Lennon of the National Film board of Canada. There are so many different levels to the Film Festival that it’s hard to explain or understand how they organize everything but here’s what I’ve figured out. There are the 20 or so Feature films that are in Competition, that’s the easy part. They get the red carpet and most of the hype that goes with the festival. An out of competition section allows for a certain amount of films to have screenings. Everything from big Hollywood blockbusters to short films. Underneath all this glitz and glamour is a film market. Sales agents, distributors and everyone else pushing, selling and buying films. There are over 900 feature films in the market and about 1720 in the market for short films which is called the short film corner. There are a series of small screening booths in the short film corner and in the feature film market. Filmmakers can book these screening rooms ahead of time and arrange for sales agents or distributors or whoever to see their films and maybe buy rights to them. It wouldn’t be possible for anyone to watch all 1720 films in the short film market so these thematic programs are selected by film programers to narrow things down for festival programers and film buyers. These programs of short films are screened in the Marché du Film. Measuring Tape Girl was selected into a Thematic Program called ‘Most People Live in China’. I forgot to ask Danny what he exactly meant by that. There are a lot of parities in Cannes. A lot of films and a lot of parties. You really have to pick and choose where you go because it would be very easy to never sleep in Cannes.

Every country has a pavilion which provides a home base for filmmakers from that country. It’s where they have meetings, parties and it’s safe haven from all the craziness. These international pavilions line the beach area near the Palais de Festival and you can walk out to the beach from each Pavilion. On the other side of the docks are the party yachts with production company names and logos. You can get lost in the casino maze like design of the whole area. I really haven’t figured it all out just yet. I’m still a little dizzy from all this new information. For now I’m just going to find a place in the shade and hide for a bit. It can really get hot in this Measuring Tape Blazer.