Major Hollywood studios are largely avoiding this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which opens today.
The event is traditionally a showcase for some of the year’s biggest movies, and is “Hollywood’s most glamorous overseas outpost,” per The Guardian. But this year, only two American entrants are competing for the Palme d’Or, both relatively small and financed outside the US.
Premiering a film at a festival takes marketing control out of the studios’ hands, one industry reporter said: The 2023 Indiana Jones reboot was trashed by Cannes critics, and then underperformed at the box office.
Hollywood’s absence has left the field open to international auteurs — Pedro Almodóvar’s return is particularly exciting attendees — but the festival’s director said “I hope the studio films come back.”