Lengthy audience standing ovations have become de rigueur for premieres at the Cannes Film Festival, which provides a marketing tool for publicity.
In the image above, the Cannes fest premiere for “Being Maria” gets a standing ovation in 2024 for director Jessica Palud and Matt Dillon (at center). Photo: John Sears – CC.
A Deadline.com story by Nancy Tartaglione notes that automatic standing applause “really only caught fire a handful of years ago as reporters, publicists and sales companies see an opportunity for clicks, crowing rights and marketing hooks.”
Because they are automatic, ovations are tricky to evaluate. Short applause of just a few minutes actually signify a poor audience response. Very good to excellent are five minutes and more. Subsequent marketing can cheat by truthfully saying a film got a standing ovation at Cannes, without mentioning the cheering was a disappointing two-minutes long.
“Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Frémaux now roundly hands a microphone to a director as he encourages a steadycam operator to zero in on famous faces; the Dealine.com article says. “This arguably leads to longer applause.”
The practice is now common at Italy’s important Venice fest too. Be aware films premiere out-of-competition on the periphery of festivals; the standing ovation practice applies mainly to in-competition evening premieres with audiences dressed in high fashion.
The Deadline.com article continues: “It’s roundly considered that Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 fantasy drama ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ is the granddaddy of them all at 22 minutes [at Cannes]. While it didn’t win any prizes on the Riviera, it went on to scoop three Oscars and solidify del Toro as a visionary filmmaker.” Rapturous reception for “Pan’s Labyrinth,” which takes place in the 1940s in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, may also be due to its left-wing political thrust, which plays well in Cannes.
Among others with lengthy Cannes salutes, Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” clocked in at 20 minutes in 2004, which is before such standing ovations were automatic. That documentary went one to win the festival’s top Palme d’Or prize and was a blockbuster in general release.
Last year’s “Joker: Folie à Deux,” the arty Warner Bros. Pictures movie in the Batman franchise, received a fine 12½ minute salute. But while “Joker” received accolades from critics and the culture crowd, the big-production-budget movie later bombed with mainstream audiences in cinemas. Kevin Costner’s American Western “Horizons” received a 10-minute standing ovation in 2024, but then became another mainstream disappointment in general release.
Audiences booing after premieres used to happen occasionally, but rarely now. At Cannes, Vincent Gallo’s “The Brown Bunny” in 2003, Richard Kelly’s “Southland Tales” in 2006, Gus Van Sant’s “The Sea of Trees” in 2015 got boo-bird jeers.
A Hollywood Reporter story by Gary Baum is critical of the current always-praising practice. “This extended cheering [is] reminiscent of rallies in authoritarian regimes. The unrelenting, excessive applause isn’t just joyous.”
It’s not clear why the standing ovation became such a ritual. Perhaps initially audiences wanted to salute every filmmaker’s attempt at artistry. Even if audiences felt a film is bad, it’s a gesture that everybody-gets-a-trophy.
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