For two weeks every May, the world's film industry compresses itself onto the Croisette. The cameras follow the red carpet of the Palais des Festivals. The cheques, however, are signed in the dining rooms of Cap d'Antibes.
The villa circuit
The producers know: the deal-making happens at three estates — Villa Eilenroc, La Fiorentina and a private château above Mougins whose name no one ever prints. Invitations travel by SMS at midnight, doors open at one, and the first daylight finds limousines lined up along the corniche.
"By the time a Cannes party makes the press, it has already been outgrown by the people who actually finance films." — a long-time agent
The Eden-Roc paradox
Officially, the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc is closed to non-residents during the Festival. Unofficially, eleven of its cabanas host the most intimate after-parties of the fortnight — twelve guests at most, the host sometimes a Saudi prince, sometimes a streamer founder, always silent on social media.
The two-week ballet ends as it begins: with a yacht horn off Pointe Saint-Hospice. The films will tour the world. The contracts, by then, will already be signed.
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