I’m sorry but the Cannes Film Festival online ticketing system, instituted last year because of Covid, is easily the worst I’ve ever encountered at any major festival, ever.
They need to go back to the old system of just letting journos line up before a showing and admitting them based on badge colors. Not a perfect arrangement, but far better than this current clusterfuck.
Ticket reservations can be made four days in advance, but for many titles the festival’s response is “pending” — festival code for overbooked.
Until a few minutes ago I couldn’t get into any screenings happening tomorrow (Tuesday, 5.17) or Wednesday (5.18), although I’ve managed access to a few on Thursday.
Update: Last-minute reservations have opened up for Michel Hazanavicius‘ out-of-competition zombie movie, Coupez!, and Christophe Castagne and Thomas Sametin‘s For The Sake of Peace.
Screenings for Saturday (5.21) can be booked tomorrow morning (5.17) at 7 am, Sunday (5.22) screenings can be reserved on Wednesday morning (5.18) at 7 am, and so on.
I’ll probably wind up seeing all I want to see, but I hate the tedium and rigamarole, and I really miss the simplicity of the old system.
