Joe Amodei's Cannes Report: The Film Market vs the Festival

What does Cannes look like to someone who goes there to buy films, not to walk the red carpet?

Every May, a small town on the Mediterranean fills with tens of thousands of people for two things at once: the Cannes Film Festival, with its red carpet, paparazzi and premieres, and the Cannes film market, a convention floor of booths selling movies from nearly every country in the world. Joe Amodei of Virgil Films has gone for 20 years, and he's clear about which one matters to filmmakers. "We go to Cannes every year not to attend the film festival but to attend the film market," he says. Booths fill the convention center, companies hang banners from the hotels and apartments along the Croisette, and about 20 screening rooms run films from 8:30 in the morning until night.

In Episode 198, the first of two parts, Jason Rugg hosts with Christian Taylor, and Joe is back from Cannes. Asked to describe himself, Joe says film lover, film geek. One of his biggest thrills was a board call at USA Home Entertainment, when Robert Altman called him "the guy that's not the suit." Joe also tells the story of the night he and his wife went to the Oscars the year Gosford Park won for its writing. At the Governors Ball he picked up the statue on their table and started waving it around, thinking it was a prop, until a man behind him said, "Excuse me, sir, that's my Oscar." Christian gives full disclosure: Joe is the distributor of The Girl Who Wore Freedom, and she said then that he would also distribute her next film, Heroes of Carentan.

Then Cannes from the inside. Joe walked the red carpet there only once, with The Third Wave, a documentary about volunteers who rebuilt a Sri Lankan town after the tsunami, after Sean Penn, that year's jury president, wanted it shown. He explains why there are no Q&As at Cannes and why the stars fly out, while Christian remembers nearly knocking a glass of wine out of Stanley Tucci's hand at Sundance. He describes people in tuxedos and gowns holding signs that beg for one ticket to Indiana Jones. Then the business: a distributor's week of meetings, the three big markets (Cannes, Berlin and the American Film Market), and how to get a badge. Christian asks what she should do with Heroes of Carentan, and Joe is blunt. For an independent filmmaker, he says, "it is much more important" to be part of the markets "than it is to play film festivals all over the country." Christian says the film festival world "is like this sea filled with piranhas." She admits her film is still in the hole, and that the festival money might have been better spent at a market. The episode ends on Joe's warning about filmmakers who don't follow their own industry, and a promise of Part 2.

Full disclosure: since 2022, Joe's company, Virgil Films, has distributed Christian's film The Girl Who Wore Freedom, and it now sponsors Documentary First. This 2023 episode has no sponsor read.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Robert Altman called Joe "the guy that's not the suit"
• What happened when Joe waved a real Oscar around the Governors Ball
• What the Cannes Film Festival and the Cannes film market each are
• Why there are no Q&As after Cannes premieres
• What a film market looks like, booth by booth
• What a distributor's week at Cannes looks like
• How to register for a Cannes market badge, and what Joe thinks it costs
• What it costs to screen a film at a market, and why you need a company behind you
• Why Joe tells independent filmmakers to choose markets over festivals
• Why distributors get frustrated with filmmakers who don't read the trades

CHAPTERS

0:00 Not a Suit

6:47 What Is Cannes Really?

9:23 Walking the Red Carpet

12:01 Stars, Tickets and Tuxedos

18:16 Inside the Film Market

23:11 Badges and 33 Meetings

25:39 Festivals Won't Sell It

32:45 Strikes, Trades and Honesty

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is the difference between the Cannes Film Festival and the Cannes film market?

Joe Amodei of Virgil Films explains that both run at the same time in the same buildings in Cannes. The festival is the red-carpet event, with premieres, stars and photographers. The film market is a convention where companies from around the world set up booths and hotel suites to buy and sell films. Joe says that for filmmakers, the market is what matters, and it's the reason he goes every year.

How do you get a badge for the Cannes film market?

According to Joe Amodei, you register on the market's website and answer questions that prove you're a filmmaker or a distributor, such as your credits and your website, and the market checks you out. Approved members of the industry can buy a pass. Speaking in 2023, Joe believed it was about 350 euros, with early-bird pricing that rises closer to the dates. The bigger costs are the flight and a place to stay.

Should independent filmmakers go to film festivals or film markets?

Joe Amodei says that for an independent filmmaker trying to sell a film and pay back investors, it is much more important to be part of the film markets, such as Berlin and Cannes, than to play festivals all over the country. Festivals can be great for a standing ovation and for meeting people, he says, but the market is where buyers from around the world see your film and where you meet the industry.

How much does it cost to screen a film at a film market?

Joe Amodei's estimate, in 2023, was about 1,500 euros to screen a film once at the Cannes market, and about 2,000 euros to screen it more than once. He said Berlin is probably similar. A rough cut can work. But you should be associated with a company, he says, because when a buyer walks out of the screening, there has to be an established company to call, not an individual.

LISTEN AND FOLLOW

Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts: https://pod.fo/e/4a800a

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@documentaryfirst

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Join our community on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DocumentaryFirst

CONNECT WITH DOCUMENTARY FIRST

All platforms: https://linktr.ee/doc1st

Christian Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetchristiantaylor

ABOUT THE GUEST

Joe Amodei

Founder of Virgil Films and Entertainment; director of Cold War in Philly

Joe Amodei has worked in film distribution for more than 40 years, starting in home video retail in Philadelphia. In 2000 he became president of USA Home Entertainment (Traffic, Being John Malkovich, Gosford Park), and he went on to create Virgil Films and Entertainment, whose releases include Super Size Me, Restrepo, Forks Over Knives and Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me. He won a 2020 New York Emmy for The Real Bedford Falls: It's a Wonderful Life. In 2026 he released his first film as a director, Cold War in Philly: Flyers vs Russia 1976.

Virgil Films: https://virgilfilms.com

Cold War in Philly: https://coldwarinphilly.com

Virgil Films on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virgilfilms

Virgil Films on X: https://x.com/VirgilFilms

Virgil Films on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VirgilFilms

ABOUT VIRGIL FILMS

Virgil Films and Entertainment is an independent distributor of documentaries and independent features. It releases only a few films a month so it can work each one with its filmmaker.

ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FIRST

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers from Ken Burns to first-time directors. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide.

THE DISTRIBUTION SERIES

• Episode 128, Joe's first visit, from a video store to Super Size Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6zHmPe97nI
• Episode 194, five film business tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRVSc0YRizE
• Episode 199, Cannes part two, why documentaries are hard to sell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiJfjJIuMY0
• Episode 216, getting distributed part one, who can you trust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tLfror_514
• Episode 218, getting distributed part two, distribution...