At the Cannes Film Festival, applause that lasts for minutes does not always reflect the audience's enthusiasm. Behind these ovations lies a marketing strategy directed by public relations teams. The goal is clear: to generate hype and prestige around a film, even if the movie hasn't truly moved the room.
The engineering of applause as a promotional tool 🎬
The technique is precise. PR teams place paid attendees at strategic points in the room. They start the ovation at the exact moment after the credits. The duration is timed and leaked to the media as a success metric. A ten-minute applause can cost thousands of euros. There is no genuine emotion, only calculation. The industry turns the audience's reaction into a measurable and sellable product.
My ovation lasted longer than my attention to the movie 🍿
The funny thing is that while some clap non-stop, others check their phones or yawn. If cinema is magic, at Cannes it's a sleight-of-hand trick with clapping. In the end, what matters is not whether the film is good, but whether its PR team has a steady hand to count to ten minutes without breaking a sweat. The Oscar for Best Supporting Actor should go to them.