Cannes Film Festival

How the public gets in

The 80th Cannes Film Festival runs from 11 to 22 May 2027, and most of it is closed to visitors. The competition screenings at the Palais des Festivals are for accredited professionals. In 2026 the festival reported more than 52,000 accreditation requests by the sixth day, up 3 percent on 2025, and more than 102,000 admissions to screenings in 124 sessions. A visitor without a professional badge has three ways to see a film, and only one is free of any application.

Cannes Cinéma, the city's cinema organization, runs the Cinéphiles badge, and it is not open to everyone. There are four categories. Film students must be over 18 and enrolled in a film or audiovisual program, with third-year bachelor's students and above prioritized. Cinema subscribers must be over 18 and prove frequent attendance. Associations apply for committed members such as volunteers, and school groups are high-school film students over 16, registered by a teacher. The page is plain that accreditation is not an entitlement: applications are judged on cinema attendance and on the academic curriculum or project, and refusal is possible. Requests open and close in February, are processed in March, and go through the festival's online portal only. Late or incomplete files are rejected without appeal.

In 2026 there were 3,000 badges, and the festival asked for an environmental contribution of 24 euros including VAT, which it says supports carbon offset programs. A badge gives free tickets to Cannes Cinéma's screenings of the Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight, Critics' Week, ACID, Visions Sociales and Cannes Écrans Juniors. Four cinemas have priority: Théâtre La Licorne, Cinéma Studio 13, Cinéma Le Raimu and Théâtre Alexandre III. Seats at the Palais des Festivals, the Théâtre Croisette, the Espace Miramar and the Cineum are open to badge holders only under certain conditions, 24 hours before a screening.

The booking rules are strict. Tickets go on sale at a single online ticket office, four days ahead for Cinéphiles screenings and 24 hours ahead for the others. A ticket guarantees a seat only if you arrive at least 30 minutes early, and security checks stop 10 minutes before the start. You can cancel up to one hour before, and no-shows without a cancellation are penalized on your profile. If a screening shows full online, a few seats may be released on site just before the film. Minors cannot enter festival venues unless they are in a school group, are accredited, or are at a Cannes Écrans Juniors screening. In 2026 the badges were collected at the Gare Maritime (Pantiero).

Directors' Fortnight is reported to be the one section that sells tickets directly to the public without accreditation, at a desk on Rue Amouretti or online. Critics' Week is described as bookable through a public account. Prices and rules change by year, so read each section's own ticketing page when it opens.

The beach cinema

The Cinéma de la Plage is the open-air screening on Macé beach, opposite the Majestic Hotel on the Croisette. In 2026 it started each evening at 9:30pm and showed 11 films, among them a 40th-anniversary screening of Top Gun and a tribute to Carlos Saura. Admission is free with no badge, registration or ticket. A travel guide cites about 800 sun loungers and advises arriving one to two hours early on evenings with guests. Check the festival site for the 2027 programme.

The red carpet

The festival's charter prohibits nudity on the red carpet and in every other area, and restricts oversized outfits: gowns with large trains that block seating are not allowed, and staff can refuse access. For galas at the Grand Théâtre Lumière the dress code calls for floor-length gowns or tuxedos, with cocktail dresses, dark pantsuits and tailored suits as the alternative. Sneakers and large bags are not allowed.

Getting there

From Cannes station the Palais des Festivals is a six-minute walk. Inoui and Ouigo high-speed trains stop in Cannes, and regional ZOU! trains run every 15 minutes to Menton. From Paris the trip is 5 hours 15 minutes, from Marseille 2 hours.

From Nice airport, shuttle line 81 takes about 45 minutes to Cannes via the freeway, running from the airport from 8am to 10pm. The tram-and-train option is in Nice airport to Cannes. Cannes-Mandelieu airport is about 15 minutes from the Palais by taxi. If you drive, the car park under the Palais has 924 spaces on three levels, and the A8 exits are 43 (Cannes La Bocca) and 42 (Grasse/Cannes-centre).

Where to sleep

The room is the expense. Stephen Follows analyzed Booking.com quotes for 224 hotels in September 2026, for two adults and one night. A normal spring night in Cannes costs roughly 100 to 140 euros. The median on Sunday 9 May 2027 was 160 euros. At the festival's opening it was 472 euros, and three days after the closing ceremony 194 euros. The festival markup averaged 3.8 times the baseline. On opening night only about one in eight Cannes hotels was still taking bookings, and within 500 meters of the Palais about one in 13 still sold festival week. The author treats these as minimums.

The towns around are cheaper. In the same analysis the markup was 1.2 times in Antibes, 1.3 in Nice and 1.6 in Mougins, against 3.8 in Cannes. Antibes and Nice are on the same coastal rail line as Cannes. For the choice inside Cannes, see where to stay in Cannes.

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What to skip

Do not travel to Cannes expecting to buy a seat at a competition screening. Plan the week around the Cinéphiles badge if you qualify, the sections with public tickets and the beach.

Do not leave the room until spring. In the analysis about a third of Cannes hotels were still taking bookings just before the festival, and one in eight on opening night.