After last January’s dismaying Sundance credentials episode, I needed the emotional and psychological boost of my beloved pink-with-yellow-pastille badge, which the Cannes Film Festival press office been gracious enough to dispense for the last seven or eight years.

The feelings of comfort and affirmation that this pass bequeaths cannot and should not be minimized. Pink-with-yellow-dot doesn’t just put a smile on your face — it imprints a smile in your soul. A regular pink pass is fine — it just means having to wait in line for 30 to 40 minutes, and is much better than a dreaded blue or yellow or (God forbid) Cannes market badge. But pink-with-yellow-dot means you can stroll in at the last minute, which allows you to file at your nearby apartment until just before a screening begins.

Who am I if not a pink-with-yellow-pastille guy? What am I? What is the sum total of my decades of filing, reporting and dispensing gut-instinct observations if not this? Life is hard, but it’s a lot less arduous if you’re wearing one of these babies.