--- title: What It's Really Like To Be a Film Critic at the Cannes Film Festival | TIME canonical: https://time.com/video/TiRnEk4W/ og:title: What It's Really Like To Be a Film Critic at the Cannes Film Festival og:url: https://time.com/video/TiRnEk4W/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TiRnEk4W/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What It's Really Like To Be a Film Critic at the Cannes Film Festival twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TiRnEk4W/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * Entertainment # What It's Really Like To Be a Film Critic at the Cannes Film Festival > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: What It's Really Like To Be a Film Critic at the Cannes Film Festival [Watch (HLS stream): What It's Really Like To Be a Film Critic at the Cannes Film Festival](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TiRnEk4W.m3u8) (2:10)  _Published 2026-05-21_ --- May 21, 2026 9:59 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Johnny Depp Addresses Controversy at Cannes Film Festival](/video/g4auZBep/) ### Johnny Depp Addresses Controversy at Cannes Film Festival [Do Women Have To Wear Heels At The Cannes Film Festival?](/video/6jQ7lCyR/) ### Do Women Have To Wear Heels At The Cannes Film Festival? [The Most Loyal Fan of the Cannes Film Festival](/video/9UQFNEvd/) ### The Most Loyal Fan of the Cannes Film Festival --- ## Transcript If you're looking at pictures from the Cannes Film Festival, you're probably seeing lots of celebrities in gorgeous dresses and shots of the elegant boulevard known as the corset. But for the thousands of journalists and critics here, the reality is far less glamorous. I'm going to show you what it's really like to cover the Cannes Film Festival. Cannes is home to some beautiful historic hotels, but most journalists and critics stay in rented flats, often shared with a roommate or 2 or 5. Then you time your walk to the Palais, the complex where most of the movie screenings and premieres take place. Your walk could be a half hour, and you might be doing it several times a day. The right shoes are everything for the 12 day festival. You'll spend most of your time watching new movies from around the world, and that part is bliss. You might see 2 to 5 movies per day. I keep it to three if possible. Most days you'll be going from around 7 a.m. to midnight, and much of your time will be spent writing. Writing is hard, and when you're overtired, it feels like the loneliest job in the world. And there's plenty that's annoying, like waiting in long lines to get into screenings. We're advised to show up 30 minutes early, but it's amazing to be around so many people who care so much about movies. The real place to be in Cannes is the area around the Palais. As the premieres are happening from late afternoon to midnight. This year, the hot tickets were the Korean monster movie Hope and Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver. Premiere tickets are scarce and some people come to the Palais all dressed up, hopeful that someone will have a spare. The red carpet dress code is strict. It includes elegant shoes for women and a black bow tie for men. But even if you never get anywhere near that carpet, you can still feel the glamour in the air. Hello, hello. Covering Kana's hard work. But then, for 12 days, you're doing your job in a gorgeous part of the world where beautiful people look more beautiful and even average people look pretty darn good. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"What It's Really Like To Be a Film Critic at the Cannes Film Festival","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TiRnEk4W/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-05-21T21:56:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TiRnEk4W.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/TiRnEk4W/","duration":"PT2M10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/TiRnEk4W/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```