The Cannes Film Festival will command the attention of the global movie industry for 12 days this week, commencing on Tuesday, as it hosts a constant parade of red carpets and premieres. This annual event functions as a central marketplace for the commodification of cinematic labor, where films are presented for distribution and profit, reinforcing the existing structures of capital accumulation within the entertainment sector.
For more than 78 years, Cannes has served as a showcase for films, including past Oscar nominees such as “Sentimental Value,” “The Secret Agent,” and “It Was Just an Accident,” and winners like “Parasite” and “Anora.” These accolades, while celebrating artistic merit, simultaneously validate films within a commercial framework, increasing their market value and the surplus value they generate for studios and distributors.
This year, South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook presides over the jury tasked with deciding the Palme d’Or, a symbolic award within the industry's competitive structure. The festival will also bestow honorary Palme d’Or awards on established figures Peter Jackson and Barbra Streisand, recognizing their contributions within the existing capitalist film hierarchy rather than challenging its foundations.
The Commodification of Art
The presence of major media capital is evident with the HBO series “The White Lotus” utilizing the Croisette for the shooting of its fourth season. This integration of television production into the festival's high-profile environment further blurs the lines between artistic presentation and direct commercial enterprise, leveraging the festival's cultural capital for brand promotion and audience capture.
While Hollywood studios are noted to be "mostly on the sidelines this year," the festival continues to feature a diverse array of films, each representing significant investments of capital and labor. These include Na Hong-jin’s “Hope,” James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” and Jane Schoenbrun’s “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” among others.
Labor Behind the Spectacle
The creation of these films involves the collective labor of numerous actors and crew members. For instance, “Hope” features Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon, Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Taylor Russell. “Paper Tiger” stars Adam Driver, Miles Teller, and Scarlett Johansson, while “Fjord” includes Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. These individuals, as laborers, contribute their skills and time to produce the cinematic content that drives the industry's profits.
The film “John Lennon: The Last Interview,” directed by Steven Soderbergh, highlights the evolving relationship between technology and creative labor. Soderbergh acknowledged using artificial intelligence to illustrate some of Lennon’s philosophical musings, raising questions about the future role of human artistic labor in an increasingly automated production landscape.
Other films such as Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden,” Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Sheep in the Box,” Ira Sachs’ “The Man I Love,” Arthur Harari’s “The Unknown,” Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur,” and Pedro Almodovar’s “Bitter Christmas” all represent the concentrated efforts of directors, writers, and performers. Their work is brought to Cannes to be evaluated, marketed, and ultimately sold within the global film market.
Maintaining the Cultural Hierarchy
Thierry Fremaux, Cannes artistic director, described “Hope” as a film that “constantly changes genres,” a statement that speaks to the aesthetic criteria valued within the festival's established critical and commercial framework. The festival's role is not only to showcase films but also to curate and legitimize certain forms of artistic expression, thereby influencing cultural consumption and reinforcing dominant tastes.
The entire event, from the red carpets to the awards, serves to generate cultural capital that can be converted into economic capital. The attention drawn by film critics like Jake Coyle, who has covered the movie industry for The Associated Press since 2013, further contributes to the valuation and marketability of the films and the festival itself, solidifying its place within the global entertainment complex.