Frustrated Cannes market-badge holders have claimed an inability to book tickets to festival screenings via the online system is hindering their ability to do their jobs.
Henriette Wollmann, consultant, legal and business affairs and acquisitions at the UK’s Celsius Entertainment, said as of May 16 she had been unable to book a single ticket. “My job is to be on top of what’s going on film-wise. The way to do that is to watch films, which is not possible,” said Wollmann.
One exec at a European production and distribution firm said they were “kicked off” the ticketing page two minutes before sales opened. Their primary target screening had sold out by 07.01. “Last year it was bad, but I managed to get way more tickets than I did this year,” they said.
The acquisitions and programming staff at the BFI have “really struggled” to secure tickets, according to Jason Wood, BFI executive director of public programmes and audiences. “It means it is harder to plan and links become more important, which isn’t the best way to make a decision.”
A European film programmer added: “The frustrating part is that nothing is transparent about the process. How many seats are reserved for specific badges? How many people are fighting for the same number of seats?”
As a programmer, the problems it causes are “not seeing the films I’m supposed to scout for the festival I’m working at on a big screen, which causes inevitable delays in the work”.
They said the situation was especially infuriating as someone who has attended the festival in a professional capacity for several years, “as if all the work I did in previous years doesn’t amount to much”.
Prior travails have prompted some to find other ways to secure coveted tickets. Steve Shor of Newport Beach International Film Festival noted: “I haven’t gone on the system this year because I’ve been burnt in the past. I’ve been asking studios for tickets to the festival movies and get market screening tickets from sales agents.”
Others have reported improvements as the system has progressed. “I struggled on my first day with technical difficulties,” said Jen Davies, co-CEO at UK distributor Conic. ”Getting error messages was frustrating as I could see the films I was trying to book hadn’t sold out,” he said. “But things have since been OK for me. It’s just a scrum at 6am (BST), and a lot of clicking and hoping.”
Unlike the (presumably) one-size-fits-all market badge, the press booking is staggered by badge level.
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