(Cannes) Will the most followed tiktokeur in Europe, Khaby Lame, eclipse Tom Cruise? For his 75and edition, the Cannes Film Festival, a venerable meeting place for world cinema, has embarked on a frantic quest for a new lease of life.
Posted at 10:26
This year, the Festival has dumped its historic partnership with Canal+, an emblematic cinema channel in the 1980s and 1990s, which notably broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies.
Instead: a surprising coupling between public service (France Télévisions) and Brut, which should make it possible to address, in particular, the younger generations.
This video medium founded five years ago (by Renaud Le Van Kim, a former Canal+ employee), focused on short formats, is also present in India, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire and Japan. It claims 500 million spectators in more than 100 countries, mainly among 18-34 year olds.
Quite a symbol, at a time when cinema in theaters is getting old, suffering the brunt of competition from series and streaming. Many young people only go to theaters for superhero, Marvel or DC Comics films.
However, “the themes addressed (in the films of) Cannes resonate a lot with young people around the world”, explains to AFP the boss of Brut, Guillaume Lacroix, who sees in the partnership the means of making the festival “even more inclusive generationally, and in terms of diversity”.
Several schemes are already helping young shoots hatch, such as the Cinéfondation or La Fabrique Cinéma, and the Festival has just refocused the Un certain regard selection on new talents.
“Evolve or die”
A year after the rejuvenation offered by the Palme d’Or by rewarding a thirty-year-old, Julia Ducournau, for Titaniumthe competition welcomes veterans like David Cronenberg (79 years old) or the Dardenne brothers (68 and 71 years old), but also several “juniors”, like Lukas Dhont, 30 years old, or Saeed Roustaee, 32 years old.
Like the world of cinema as a whole, on the image side, Cannes “needs to reach a new generation and to modernize”, judge Julien Pillot, teacher-researcher in economics at Inseec.
The red carpet, where there is a strict dress code judged by some to be anachronistic (heels for women, bow ties for men), has it become ” has-been »?
“Alongside a Tom Cruise who will talk to the ‘boomers’ (baby-boom generations, editor’s note), there is a whole generation of super-glamorous actors in Cannes, hyper-followed on social networks” and alongside whom the new media do not want to pass, underlines Mr. Pillot.
A favorite social network for teens and paradise for ultra-short videos, TikTok, also a new official partner, will broadcast the rise of the stairs every day, while Instagram will take advantage of the Cannes buzz to highlight some of its influencers – unrelated to elsewhere with the 7and art.
And, consecration, a “TikTok jury”, where Khaby Lame, 100 million subscribers, will sit between videos of 30 seconds to 3 minutes for an official prize, awarded on May 20 from the hands of the general delegate, Thierry Frémaux.
“If Michel Hazanavicius or Martin Scorsese were 16 today, they wouldn’t be doing Super-8, but would be using their phones to create content, tell stories,” explains Guillaume Lacroix, who assures that Brut allows Cannes to to be present “wherever” the younger generations are.
Its media will even transpose the Festival venues and the Croisette into the “metaverse” (virtual world) of Fortniteone of the most popular video games in the world which claims nearly 200 million users.
In the costume of a journalist, an actor or a director, the players will have access to various quests: “to carry out interviews”, “to pass a distribution” or “to participate in the ascent of the steps”…
Faced with these all-out initiatives, “people will laugh, criticize”, predicts Julien Pillot. “But (the cinema) must evolve with the times, so as not to die”.