An inside look at Cannes 62
By Sarah Hoch

Our flight to the south of France was uneventful, though we had prepared for the worst.

We set off on May 12, armed with masks, hand gel and official letters from Relaciones Exteriores and the Mexican Embassy in Paris in case of flu discrimination and/or persecution. We encountered no quarantine, no special entrance instructions, no questions; no one even wore masks on the plane. In Cannes, no one flinched at a meeting request or an events invitation. The plague had ended.

The Cannes Film Festival is everything you’ve heard and seen: Glam, glitz, sun, shore, Lamborghinis and yachts. Designer everything, a virtual runway, the place to wear those clothes from the spring collections. People are from every corner of the world and all aspects of the film business. Everyone is selling something: Films, projects, territories, themselves. The hardest job? The actor’s sell. It’s all about turning heads, lights, cameras and paparazzi. Hence those clothes and concoctions that would put Cher to shame. This year a group of naked men cycled down the Croisette to promote their film The Misfortunates and yes, they were…very.

When attending the festival, one should not just “show up” and if you’re in the biz, you should work an invitation. It’s taken us a couple years, but we have now carved a niche “inside.” Not the Hollywood aristocratic “inside,” mind you, no helicopter pick up at the airport, but a respectful presence for Expresión en Corto’s events and the filmmakers who accompany us. We can promote our activities, films, San Miguel and Guanajuato, the cities where the festival is held each year.

For the second year, Expresión en Corto celebrates its partnership with the Cannes Film Festival, which produced the MexiCannes Summer Residence Program. MexiCannes serves as an extension to the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence Program, which yearly selects a dozen of the very best young filmmakers from around the world and offers them a platform designed to propel their careers.

This year in Cannes we kicked it off with a “MexiCannes Brunch” at the exclusive restaurant Plague de Palms, to enjoy some conviviality with the 2009 filmmaker laureates and Cannes Festival executives. Later that day, we launched “Speak Out against Domestic Violence,” an international shorts competition with Avon Products. A special market screening of the winning programs from the last two years was also a part of our events. We hosted a Happy Hour “Come to Mexico and Expresion en Corto 2009” Party. In the spirit of our festival, it broke attendance records for a Cannes Shorts Corner event. We planned for 200 people and were surprised when 500 showed. We ran out of drinks and botanas during the first 30 minutes, but no one seemed to mind. For our final event we co-hosted The Mexico Party at the Plage du Festival—a beautiful afternoon on the beach with all the attending Mexican film community and their invitees from all over the world.

The movies! It’s all about the movies, though when you’re there for work, it’s hard to get to see any of them. We did walk the red carpet in our evening attire on a couple of occasions. At Cannes, all evening screenings at the Paile require tuxedo and evening gown, which is nice and makes it quite an event for all, a celebration for the filmmakers. We saw Pedro Almodovar’s newest film Abrazos Rotos, not my favorite Almodovar film, but interesting and we enjoyed it. It seemed to be a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, same rhythm and similar esthetics. It was a gala evening with Penelope Cruz present, a much-needed moment of superstar power, since this year’s Cannes was slightly on the slim side for stars. We also saw Agora, the newest film by Alejandro Amenabar, director of memorable films such as Mar Adentro and The Others. Agora? No comment. OK, one word…Gringada. Only one feature film from Mexico was in this year’s Cannes line-up. Daniel y Ana, directed by Michel Franco (his Opera Prima) competed in the “Of Certain Regard” section. The film centers on the horrific kidnap of a brother and sister forced by their attackers to commit incest. Reviews were mixed, but it was mostly well received.

The parties at Cannes—not often are we invited to A-list parties. The hottest tickets this year were Sharon Stone’s party for AIDS research and Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds movie premier party. This year, thanks to Kenneth Anger, renowned experimental filmmaker extraordinaire, we were invited to the grooviest and edgiest party in Cannes: The 42 Below One Dream Rush Party. You may remember Anger’s visit to San Miguel two years ago for the festival. He gave a knockout master class at Belles Artes. He and his assistant, knowing we would be in Cannes, dropped us an invite. Being the loser that I am and having long since outgrown all my party inclinations, I would have blown it off, but our Expresion en Corto directors in San Miguel, especially Daniel and Nina, reminded (hounded) us daily about going. Yes, we were bullied into it and wouldn’t be able to hold our heads up at home if we hadn’t gone. So we did. And it was well worth it! The music was incredible, one singer after another, one DJ after another, way into the night. The champagne never stopped flowing and chic little hors d’oeuvres were traveling around on silver trays all night. Highlights of the evening: Sean Lennon singing from his new album, brother Julian there in support. Actress Asia Argento hosted and DJed the event. She also sat on this year’s Cannes jury. The invitation-only house party was jam-packed with celebrities like David Beckham, Kevin Garnett, Missy Elliott, Ilie Nataste, Russell Simmons, Kimora Simmons, Katy Perry and Mark Gonzales. Reported by many rags as the hottest party in Cannes.

So, that’s Cannes 2009 in a nutshell. It was a great festival. We are unpacking, emailing, following up and preparing our plans for Expresion en Corto at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. 


Sarah Hoch is the Founder and Director of the Expresión en Corto film festival.