So apparently it has never rained this much in Cannes during the fest, like, ever. Every time I meet someone who finds out that it's my first time here, they apologize for the weather as if they had something to do about it. Personally, I find the rain kinda romantic and has made me feel like I'm in a new-wave French film.
Today was a good day.
I woke up early to meet international short film buyers at a special breakfast held by the festival. It's sort of like filmmaker speed dating. You grab a coffee, and rotate table to table every ten minutes or so, pitching your film and handing them materials. A lot of people were excited by my film. Despite being overwhelmed with amount of content available in the room, they seemed genuinely seemed into my story, its cast and my funky business cards.
After that I headed with producer, Mike MacMillan, to the market screening of Canadian film Dead Before Dawn, a comedy about people turning into zombies. A zomedy. In 3-D. It was a lot of fun and there's an actress in the film I think would be perfect for the feature I'm developing. Her name is Martha MacIsaac and she was in Superbad. The one that wasn't Emma Stone.
One thing that I've noticed is that my french must be terrible. Whenever I buy a panini or ask direction and say "Merci," they person answers "Thank you" in English.
Next up was a party designed for filmmakers from Canada and India to schmooze it up. There I met a great writer/director team, the head of film finance for India who tried to sway me to shoot my next film there, a Bollywood producer and an East Indian/Canadian/Los Angeles actress who really impressed me. Wheels are turning. Things are happening.
Quote of today: "They say it's not what you know, it's who you know. That's not true, it's who knows YOU." - Michael MacMillan