Cannes Film Festival as a place branding event

Cannes is where you lie on the beach and stare at the stars—or vice versa.
– Rex Reed, U.S. columnist and actor.

Tonight is the final evening of the Cannes Film Festival 2013, an annual event when the cinema industry descends on the small beachside town of Cannes on the French Riviera. Without doubt, Cannes is the world’s most prestigious film festival.

I have visited the festival in May every year since I moved to the area in 1997 and this time I was there last Friday, May 17th. Most years I go one evening or one afternoon during the twelve day long festival, and when I can, I stay for the evening screening on the beach of a classic film. This year, while waiting for the movie to start, I made some reflections on the festival and its impact on the place brand of Cannes.

Every year classics are shown for free at 21.30 and there are few cinematic experiences that can surpass this moment. The climate is warm, the breeze is soothing and there is a scent of saltwater in the air, the scenery is absolutely beautiful, the sound of the waves and the anticipation of a great cinematic experience of a classic movie that can otherwise no longer be seen on the big silver screen.

People start to queue at eight and by nine, when the beach is opened and blankets are handed out, the audience run for the best located beach chairs and there is a moment of tranquillity for the half hour that remains until the show begins. The organisers make last minute adjustments to the lights and the screen.

Friday evening last week the classic movie of the night was “”That Man From Rio”, an exciting French thriller from 1964, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Françoise Dorléac. At the 37th Academy Awards the film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay. I like the movie as it has a magical innocence and beautiful images of a time and place long gone, from the streets and museums of sophisticated Paris  in the 1960s to the exotic sceneries of Brazil at a time when the Brazilians built their new futuristic capital Brasilia on cleared land in the Amazonas jungle and had an unbroken belief in rapid development. At 21.30 the organisers give a brief introduction speech and then the movie experience begins.

Queuing for the event, one often see some (real) famous people and some (not-so-real) imposters, that anyway add to the ambience of the festival. Previous years I have seen Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman…

This year Charlie Chaplin was with us in the queue in person, chatting, asking questions and in a subtle way letting us know his opinion of the event. He left before the screening, no doubt having seen the movie already when it was fresh in the 1960s.

Beyond the beach, one can see the skyline of the famous hotels. Carlton, Martinez, Noga-Hilton, lined up along the Promenade de la Croisette. Both the Carlton and the Croisette were built at the end of the 19th century, during an incredibly expansive decade when the population of Cannes multiplied by ten.

Further from the beach, beyond the Croisette, The Belle Époque architecture of Cannes is as smart and elegant as the residents and visitors dress code. One can find posh brands on Rue d’Antibes, and intimate restaurants in the old town, also known as Le Suquet. There are plenty of places to sip some rosé, nibble on a salade Niçoise, or relax with a Café Noisette.

Visiting Cannes during the festival, do not be surprised if you meet networking people you already have seen somewhere else. Major events, such as the Cannes Film Festival,  have spawned a global circus that continuously travels the earth, consisting of business executives, consultants, developers, service suppliers, socialites, media celebrities, and so on, attending the next conference on the economic benefits of the Pan American Games, the Mobile World Congress, the FIFA World Cup, the Rugby World Cup, the Asian Games and the Biennale in Venice, etcetera. Also this week, one other major event in the world takes place in neighbouring Monaco, the Monaco Grand Prix Formula 1 race.

Do festivals brand places? Yes they do. As a part of place branding, festivals are increasingly being used in brand promotion and Cannes is the ultimate example of a place being identified with its film festival. Festivals, like many other events, add to the economic development and vibrancy of the place. Thus festivals can be an important tool in place branding, as they enhances the “happening’” image of a place. An important function of branding a place is to create an image of the location that stands out in the global place-product market. Inherently, the brand asserts the place’s uniqueness.

In the picture above we can see the multitude of exhibition tents around the festival palace. Creating, preparing and setting up events has become an exercise in inventing and developing saleable traditions.  The preparations are often very hectic and the devil is in the details. Events are devised over a relatively short space of time and that means construction costs are immediately measurable, whereas income may trickle in over many years or decades to come after the spectacle of the event itself. On top of that, one should not neglect the intangible costs or benefits spectacular events may bring to the population close to the sites.

The Cannes Film Festival was one of the first film festivals in the world. Other famous early film festivals are listed in the table below. To how many of these places have you been, and how much do you, dear reader, connect them with the film festival event?

1932	Venice International Film Festival (Italy)
1935	Moscow International Film Festival (Russia)
1939	Cannes International Film Festival (France)
1946	Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech)
1946	Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland)
1951	Berlin International Film Festival – Berlinale (Germany)
1952	The International Film Festival of India (India)
1953	Donostia – San Sebastian International Film Festival (Spain)
1954	International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (Germany),
1954	Sydney Film Festival (Australia)
1954	Mar del Plata International Film Festival (Argentina)
1956	The Times BFI London Film Festival (England)
1958	Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films (Spain)

As famous as the red carpet during the festival is the life on the beach. This year it is worse weather than normally, and thus less people seeking attention by their (often minimal) swimwear. Yet the photographers are there as usual.

Cannes is not just a festival that celebrates film, and it is far from all-glamour. It is a twelve day micro-cosmos of the worldwide film industry. The town becomes a temporary cinema–owned space, a place destination, populated by producers, sales agents, investors, institutes, councils, marketers, distributors, journalists, actors, directors, socialites and everyone else along the film chain.

Ownership is inherent throughout the wider festival experience too, an impression that spills across town with pop-ups, spaces, surfaces and experiences that are owned, hosted and presented.

From luxury apartment blocks that has became temporary offices to film sales agents and distributors to house walls with huge movie posters, like the one on the right, and entire luxury landmarks, notably the Carlton hotel,  its surface being a brilliantly aligned marketing canvas along the beachfront La Croisette.

Renowned institutions like the famous St Tropez resort, Nikki Beach, offers beachside and rooftop views from its styled, pop-up Cannes residencies.

In fact, the whole stretch of Cannes beach is spliced up into brand owned segments, hosted by hotels, film institutes and mobile network operators, with the grand finale at the end of they bay with the unique restaurant and club Baoli.

So during the twelve days, Cannes becomes a stage of opportunity for business dealings, marketing and self-marketing, with two distinct captive and targetable audiences. The first: a cross-section of the global film industry and the second, anyone else in the world who may be watching, drawn by a love of film or celebrity glamour.

And thus the town of Cannes is painted with an image that remains as an attraction factor for visitors throughout the year. For business people this means that Cannes becomes an attractive destination also for other events, such as MIPIM, Cannes Lions, Cannes Yacht Festival and MIPCOM. For tourists the town is a must see for any visitor to the Riviera.

Now the time is 21.30. No more time for reflection as now comes the magic moment. The introduction speech is done, the sun has set, the movie is about to begin. Time to enjoy!

The Palme d’Or

The main award of the Cannes Film Festival is the Palme d’Or for best film. The table below shows the winners of the Palme d´Or since the award was introduced. How many of them have you seen?

Year	Winner
1955	Marty (United States), Delbert Mann
1956	The Silent World (France), Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle
1957	Friendly Persuasion (United States), William Wyler
1958	The Cranes Are Flying (USSR), Mikhail Kalatozov
1959	Black Orpheus (France), Marcel Camus
1960	La Dolce Vita (Italy), Federico Fellini
1961	Viridiana (Spain), Luis Bunuel A Long Absence (France/Italy), Henri Colpi
1962	The Given Word (Brazil), Anselmo Duarte
1963	The Leopard (France/Italy), Luchino Visconti
1964	The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (France), Jacques Demy
1965	The Knack, and How to Get It (United Kingdom), Richard Lester
1966	A Man and a Woman (France), Claude Lelouch The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (France/Italy), Pietro Germi
1967	Blowup (Italy), Michelangelo Antonioni
1968	Festival cancelled because of political unrest
1969	if… (United Kingdom), Lindsay Anderson
1970	M*A*S*H (United States), Robert Altman
1971	The Go-Between (United Kingdom), Joseph Losey
1972	The Mattei Affair (Italy), Francesco Rosi
1973	Scarecrow (United States), Jerry Schatzberg The Hireling (United Kingdom), Alan Bridges
1974	The Conversation (United States), Francis Ford Coppola
1975	Chronicle of the Burning Years (Algeria), Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina
1976	Taxi Driver (United States), Martin Scorsese
1977	Padre Padrone (Italy), Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani
1978	The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Italy), Ermanno Olmi
1979	The Tin Drum (Germany), Volker Schlöndorff Apocalypse Now (United States), Francis Ford Coppola
1980	Kagemusha (Japan), Akira Kurosawa All That Jazz (United States), Bob Fosse
1981	Man of Iron (Poland), Andrzej Wajda
1982	Missing (United States), Costa-Gavras Yol (Turkey), Yilmaz Güney, and Serif Goren
1983	The Ballad of Narayama (Japan), Shohei Imamura
1984	Paris, Texas (Germany/France), Wim Wenders
1985	When Father Was Away on Business (Yugoslavia), Emir Kusturica
1986	The Mission (United Kingdom), Roland Joffe
1987	Under Satan’s Sun (France), Maurice Pialat
1988	Pelle the Conqueror (Denmark), Bille August
1989	sex, lies, and videotape (United States), Steven Soderbergh
1990	Wild at Heart (United States), David Lynch
1991	Barton Fink (United States), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
1992	The Best Intentions (Sweden), Bille August
1993	The Piano (Australia), Jane Campion Farewell, My Concubine (China), Chen Kaige
1994	Pulp Fiction (United States), Quentin Tarantino
1995	Underground (Yugoslavia/France), Emir Kusturica
1996	Secrets & Lies (United Kingdom), Mike Leigh
1997	Unagi (Japan), Shohei Imamura Taste of Cherry (Iran), Abbas Kiarostami
1998	Eternity and a Day (Greece), Theo Angelopoulos
1999	Rosetta (Belgium/France), Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
2000	Dancer in the Dark (Germany/The Netherlands/United States/United Kingdom/Denmark/France/Sweden/Finland/Iceland/Norway), Lars von Trier
2001	The Son’s Room (Italy/France), Nanni Moretti
2002	The Pianist (Poland), Roman Polanski
2003	Elephant (United States), Gus Van Sant
2004	Fahrenheit 9/11 (United States), Michael Moore
2005	L’Enfant (Belgium/France), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
2006	The Wind that Shakes the Barley (United Kingdom/Ireland/Italy/Germany/Spain), Ken Loach
2007	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania), Cristian Mungiu
2008	The Class (France), Laurent Cantet
2009	The White Ribbon (Austria/Germany), Michael Haneke
2010	Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand), Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2011	The Tree of Life (United States), Terrence Malick
2012	Amour (Austria), Michael Haneke
2013	?