A standing ovation is a common practice witnessed at the Cannes Film Festival but what does it mean when a film receives one? Is it just a festival tradition or some metric of merit? Let's understand!
In the month of May, the world's cinephiles and the film industry's heads are turned towards the French Riviera as one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, Cannes unfurls its red carpet and welcomes filmmakers, experts, and enthusiasts from across the globe. While the fashion and glam on the red carpet create all the buzz worldwide, Cannes is known for its long legacy of placing cinema at the forefront and harboring conversations around films. It is also famous its standing ovations! And this year, these seem to be quite the phenomenon as almost every film screening was accompanied by their minutes-long applause.
Though the significance of standing ovations after a screening at Cannes cannot be exactly dated back, somehow, over the years, it has certainly become an intriguing ritual. Many noteworthy moments have been created by films, but nothing beats Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth receiving a whopping 22-minute thunderous standing ovation in 2006 or Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 receiving a 20-minute standing ovation in 2004. Some even refer to this standing applause as a standing-o-meter deciding a film's meritious value! But the audience is made up of all sorts of people, and as history has recorded, standing ovations aren't the most reliable source of measuring a film's value for the Palme d'Or competition. And so, despite their unreliability, standing ovations have become a cultural barometer signaling to the rest of the world about the film's impact. These also make for a helpful promotional tool.
Although sometimes a standing ovation is more out of gratitude for the director or the actor. And in recent years, these ovations have become an unofficial competition where films compete for the loudest and longest tribute. But timing them is the hardest part! Different publications record different times as some start the clock when the credit starts to roll while others wait for the lights to be switched on, though the difference is only about a minute or two. At the end of the day, even though these ovations have become an impertinent part of the festival, they are just a testament to the collective mood of the audience in the theatre.
Here’s a list of films that have received a standing ovation at Cannes 2024!
IN COMPETITION
Beating Hearts – 15 minutes (Highest in Cannes 2024)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig – 12 minutes
The Substance – 11 minutes
Emilia Pérez – 10 minutes
Anora – 10 minutes
Parthenope – 9.5 minutes
Marcello Mio – 8.5 minutes
All We Imagine As Light – 8 minutes
Bird – 8 minutes
The Apprentice– 8 minutes
Megalopolis – 7 minutes
The Girl With The Needle– 6 minutes
Kinds of Kindness– 5 minutes
Oh, Canada – 4 minutes
The Shrouds – 3.5 minutes
OUT OF COMPETITION
The Count of Monte-Cristo – 12 minutes
Horizon: An American Saga – 10 minutes
Veteran 2 (I, The Executioner) – 10 minutes
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga– 7 minutes
The Surfer – 6 minutes
Rumours – 5 minutes
The Second Act – 3.5 minutes
To learn more about each of these films, please check out our Cannes highlights for each day. We have covered these films as and when they premiered at the festival.
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