“Looking for tickets”: in Cannes the black market for access to parties and screenings is exploding

A ticket for 2000 euros to walk the red carpet and attend the screening of the latest Indiana Jones or 20,000 euros for an evening in the presence of Leonardo DiCaprio: in Cannes, the black market for prestigious invitations is running at full speed. Professionals and journalists are accredited and therefore have free access to screenings. Others, anonymous people, sometimes in tuxedos or evening dresses, wait in front of the Palais des Festivals, hoping to recover a precious sesame that will allow them, like the stars, to climb the steps and discover the selected feature films.

“I have already seen three films without paying anything. Each time, nice people gave me a ticket”, explains Sienna. This Italian woman in her thirties who lives in Berlin, holds in her hands a small cardboard sign on which she writes: “Looking for tickets”. These, in the form of a QR code, can thus be transferred to a third party. “I will not pay to go see a film which will be released in two or three months”, she assures. That day, she saw Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet.

A 25-year-old Finn confides that even if he has “few means” he nevertheless agrees to make a financial “effort” to have the opportunity to discover “an Almodovar or the last Scorsese”. That evening, he is desperately looking for a place for Firebrand, by Karim Aïnouz, when a young man from Cannes, who says he is a “municipal employee”, offers him a ticket.

Others try to monetize their place. An AFP journalist was thus offered a ticket for Black Flies on Thursday for 50 euros. Jenny, a young American from Miami, confides that she is a member of a Whatsapp group which brings together “about 600 people, sellers and buyers of tickets and invitations”. In the conversation, group members offer paid invitations. One of them sells a ticket for the screening of the fifth Indiana Jones for 2000 euros.

Another writes in broken English: “i'm have ticket for Campari party. Can give to somebody” (“I have a ticket for the Campari party. I can give it away”). A group member is interested. The seller offers him entry to the evening for 300 euros and in cryptocurrency. Another seller offers, still in English, an invitation for an evening with Leonardo DiCaprio at "20,000 euros per person" or other invitations for parties or "after-parties" at prices ranging from 9,500 to 16,500 euros.

For her part, Natalia is "looking for 2 tickets for the red carpet on May 25" and Joe would like to access the "Chopard rooftop" at the Martinez hotel. But not everyone can afford such sums. Jenny, explains that “for influencers who have millions of followers and just want to be seen, 2000 euros is nothing”. These invitations to the evenings “are offered by the brands to professionals, they are free of charge”, explains a regular at the festival. “If these invitations, generally in the form of QR codes, end up on the black market, it is because they are resold by unscrupulous professionals who thus make money”.

“As soon as the Cannes Film Festival is informed of proven facts of resale of tickets, we take action, in consultation with the police and judicial authorities. Sentences have already been pronounced in the past”, react the organizers. According to the police, no proceedings have been initiated this year.