Last year’s Cannes Film Festival saw at least three attempts to limit or flat-out block press-ticket access to high-profile screenings — Spike Lee’s Highest to Lowest, Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Great, Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water.
The idea was to attract the usual Cannes hoopla while restricting possibly mixed or negative press reviews. Online attempts by this accredited pass-holder to reserve press seating were blocked from the get-go.
Kantemir Balagov’s Butterfly Jam, a 2026 Directors Fortnight selection, is the first major film to pull this horseshit since Cannes press reservations began to happen a couple of days ago. I tried reserving a press ticket mere seconds after the window of eligibility flew open on Friday morning (5.8 at 9 am Paris time), only to be told the screening was full or blocked…sorry, homey!
Back and forth between HE and Cannes–attending friendo:
HE message to hotshot Russian producer:
I’ll admit that any film starring Barry “bee-stung nose” Keoghan would give me pause, but I certainly wouldn’t watch the film in question with a pissy attitude. I would give it a fair shot.