shots in Cannes 2025
The sun, the sea, the scent of rosé... it can only be Cannes. Once again, the industry decamps to the south of France to celebrate the recent past and the amazing work produced from all around the globe. And shots is here to help with those celebrations and also to shine a light on some of that amazing work. Here’s a guide to everything we’re up to across the week and how you can get involved too.
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The shots Cannes Beach Party
Exactly when the original shots Beach Party happened, the one that kicked it all off, is lost in the annals of time. But, despite the many changes the Cannes Lions has undergone over the decades, we like to think that the beach party remains one of the staple elements of the week.
If you are a shots member, you should, by the time of reading this, have registered for your tickets and been sent a confirmation email. If that’s the case then all you need to do is head to the Hotel Victoria where you can pick up your wristband, some shots swag (the t-shirts are excellent this year), and even have a chat with some of the shots staff should the mood take you.
Then, come Thursday 19th June at 10pm, get your dancing shoes on, head to the Plage Croisette Beach, and party like there’s no tomorrow. There is a tomorrow, of course, and it might even entail you having to get up early for a meeting, or to front a presentation or, I don’t know, run a massive awards show, but hell, you can take it… it’s only once each year!
The Young Director Award
shots has been a partner of the Young Director Award for as long as the YDA has been around (28 years if you’re interested), and every year Francois Chilot, the YDA President [pictured below] and ‘godfather of new talent’, introduces a new crop of emerging directorial talent to the industry.
Judged by a jury of international creatives, producers, directors and all-round industry legends, the YDA is a brilliant and unmissable screening which highlights the directors who will soon be picking up Lions, BAFTAs, Oscars and pretty much any other filmmaking award you can name. In fact, last year’s Special Jury Prize-winner, Victoria Warmerdam, accepted the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short only a few months ago, for her film I’m Not a Robot.
shots will be providing breakfast ahead of the screening, so you can load up on coffee and croissants before taking your fill of creativity.
The YDA breakfast and screening will take place on Thursday June 19th, from 9.30am at Cinema Olympia, 5 Rue de la Pompe, 06400 Cannes. Tickets are available here, and those tickets also give entry to the YDA beach party at 7pm the same evening.
straight 8
Turn to page 50 of this year's shots magazine [available at the Hotel Victoria and across venues in Cannes] and you’ll get all the info you need about this super 8 film competition, which is another staple of the Cannes Lions week. For the uninitiated, it’s a competition which sees companies take on the challenge of creating a super 8mm film – no re-takes, no editing, no grade, no post production – that’s screened for the first time (even to the makers) in a cinema in Cannes.
It is riotous mix of nerves, anticipation and filmmaking creativity which has, over the years, heralded some mini-masterpieces. And if that’s not enough to entice you, well we’ll also be providing a pre-screening breakfast.
The straight 8 screening, will take place on Friday June 20th at Cinema les Arcades [77 Rue Félix Faure, 06400 Cannes] with breakfast available from 10am at Nivà café [next door to the cinema] provided by shots.
