Film Journalists Protest Lack of Access to Stars Ahead of Cannes

With the 78th Cannes Film Festival set to Tuesday, more than 100 international film journalists have signed an open statement urging festival organizers, studios, and talent representatives to improve access to talent interviews — a concern that has sparked growing frustration across major film events worldwide.

The protest, which follows a similar action launched at the Venice Film Festival last year, calls on Cannes director Thierry Frémaux and his counterparts at other major festivals to publicly support “good film journalism” and to push for more equitable access to talent during festivals. The signees argue that without meaningful interviews, serious coverage of cinema is being sidelined in favor of brief promotional appearances and soundbite-driven content. For many freelancers, access is a matter of survival, as selling exclusive interviews is how they finance their travel and accommodations to Cannes and other events.

“In Berlin, it was a little bit better, with most films junketing there,” said Marco Consoli, an Italian freelance film journalist and one of the voices behind the statement. “But even though interviews were happening, the space was still very limited. It appears it will be quite the same in Cannes, from the answers we’ve already received from a few film publicists. We hope we’re wrong.”

This year’s Cannes is among the most star-driven in years, with such A-listers as Tom Cruise arriving for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, a glittering cast including Scarlett Johansson, Benicio Del Toro, Tom Hanks and Benedict Cumberbatch in town for Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Pedro Pascal walking the red carpet for Ari Aster’s Eddington, and Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor posing for the cameras to support Oliver Hermanus’ The History of Sound. But it is unclear to what degree these stars will take time to do press work while here, beyond the obligatory press conference for competition films. Mission: Impossible 8, which will premiere out of competition, will have no press commitments, besides Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie posing for the paparazzi.

The growing constraints on talent access — often blamed on limited availability or tightly controlled press schedules — have become a familiar theme on the festival circuit. In San Sebastian last year, a group of journalists walked out of a press junket when two already crowded round tables were collapsed into a shortened press conference. The expectation that two or more actors will share a 10-minute slot with multiple journalists, as Consoli notes, turns the idea of the interview into something “closer to a lottery than a standard part of the job.”

“Many journalists haven’t renewed their accreditation [to Cannes] this year because they cannot get access to interviews,” he said. “Some are saying they won’t attend other major festivals either. If this trend goes on, journalists will disappear — and with them, festivals and films, including the talent, will become less relevant in public discourse.”

In his press conference on Monday, ahead of Cannes, festival director Thierry Fremaux went out of his way to praise the importance of film journalists. “If the Cannes film festival is so successful, it is because of you [film journalists] who help build the fire under these films,” he said.

The journalists behind the statement say they fear an “outright disappearance of quality film journalism,” which they say “would not only be detrimental to the press, but also to the visibility of films and festivals, which would then be reduced to mere marketing elements and dumbed-down promotional speeches.”

In the statement, journalists appeal not only to Frémaux and Cannes’ president Iris Knobloch, but also to leaders at other festivals — including Venice’s Alberto Barbera, London’s Tricia Tuttle, and San Sebastian’s José Luis Rebordinos — to take a clear stance in defense of journalism.

The journalists stress that they are allies of the film industry, not adversaries. “We’re not against the talents,” Consoli said. “We want to support them and their films. I hope they understand that — and that our demands are not used as an excuse to blacklist us.”

Journalists wishing to add their names to the statement can contact intlfilmfestivalsjournalists@gmail.com.

You can read the journalists’ full statement and the list of signatories below.

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The Cannes Film Festival is upon us again, with its promise of eagerly awaited films, excellent auteurs, actors and artists and, of course, the glamour of the red carpet. For international film journalists, the festival is an opportunity to see and discuss these films and, in that context, interview these talents. This informed discussion, commentary and critical discourse – along with the news stories that provide the general public with a window into the buzz of the festival – are as much part of cinema culture’s ecosystem as the films themselves.

Increasingly, however, the interviews that are the bedrock of film coverage are fewer, shorter and more lightweight, often to the point of being useless for anyone trying to write a serious piece. Eight months ago, journalists at the Venice Film Festival made an official protest at the lack of access to talent hosted by the festival.

In San Sebastian, a cohort of journalists left a junket when two crowded round tables were about to be condensed into a truncated press conference. Staying was pointless. Nevertheless, the trend continues, with publicists already advising that “access will be very limited” to many of the Cannes invitees. We can expect that instead of dialogue, “interviews” will actually be 10 minutes with two or more talents together. These are useful only to reporters looking for one-liner clickbait. There is no time for reflection. Debate with artists is what we think cinema needs now more than ever, in a time when AI is used more and more to create clickbait and inflammatory content and can even be exploited to generate fake videos and audios of statements and interviews. Real live interviews are the only antidote to digital manipulation.

At a time when in-depth articles or interviews are giving way to social media influencers reports, the place given to cultural debates becomes a fundamental issue. The outright disappearance of quality film journalism would not only be detrimental to the press, but also to the visibility of films and festivals, which would then be reduced to mere marketing elements and dumbed-down promotional speeches. All the more reason, then, to ensure that serious journalists can offer their editors pieces of quality – which usually begin with great interviews. Otherwise, film journalism will disappear from mainstream press, becoming the preserve of fan sites.

We are therefore asking Thierry Frémaux and Iris Knobloch, together with Alberto Barbera, Tricia Tuttle, José Luis Rebordinos and the directors of all the other important film festivals around the world, to affirm the importance of journalism, information and discussion to these festivals and to film culture in general. We further request studios, directors, actors and the film business to enter a dialogue with the press that will ensure a fair space for discussion that is not simply about quickfire marketing, but will engage audiences everywhere. We all love cinema. We all have an interest in helping it to thrive.

Signed by

Marco Consoli

Carlos Heli de Almeida

Elaine Guerini

Lieven Trio

Anna Tatarska

Kristina Kudelova

Maria Laura Giovagnini

Andrea Morandi

Andrea Giordano

Alessandro De Simone

James Mottram

Mariola Wiktor

José Paiva Capucho

Stephanie Bunbury

Alex Masson

Kees Driessen

Kuba Armata

Thibault van de Werve

Coen van Zwol

Margret Köhler

Begona Donat

Janaina Pereira

Gregorio Belinchón

Janina Perez Arias

Mariam Schaghaghi

Dean Sinovcic

Giorgio Viaro

Davide Abbatescianni

Elli Mastorou

Artur Zaborski

Nathalie Chifflet

Giulia Bianconi

Steven Tuffin

Antje Harries

Patrick Heidmann

Hauvick Habéchian

Ivča Čermáků Přivřelů

Eva Peydró

Arthur Cios Vanderbroucke

Jean-Luc Brunet

Kalle Kinnunen

Vladan Petkovic

Tristan Priimägi

Tiziana Aricò

Hakim Zejjari

Gudula Moritz

Begoña Piña

Malik Berkati

Ida Madsen Hestman

Gini Brenner

Dieter Osswald

Hubert Heyrendt

Emanuele Bigi

E.Nina Rothe

Marina Latysheva

Anton Dolin

Andrea D’Addio

Avner Shavit

Ab Zagt

Amber Wilkinson

Ramona Boban-Vlahović

Marina D. Richter

Ilaria Ravarino

Claudia Catalli

Francisco Ferreira

Jan Lumholdt

Poly Lykourgou

Matic Majcen

Vasco Camara

Max Borg

Gaelle Moury

Fulvia Caprara

John Bleasdale

Christian Monggaard

Tatiana Rosenstein

Matthias Greuling

Marc Van de Klashorst

Angelo Acerbi

Joao Antunes

Mauro Donzelli

Ilaria Solari

Dave Mestdach

Niels Ruell

Deborah Laurent

Rui Tendinha

Ruben Aerts

Lieven Van Gils

Katia Peignois

Stanislas Ide

Jessica Matthys

Isabelle Muyambaya

Giulia Perona

Irene Crespo

Alex Billington

Denis Bucher

Franco Dassisti

Fabrice Leclerc

Cédric Coppola

Enrica Brocardo

Géza Csákvári

Kuriko Sato

Thomas Albetshauser

Renaud Baronian

Anna Wollner