Cannes (France) (AFP) – For 12 days starting Wednesday, the Cannes Film Festival will be a non-stop merry-go-round of movies, stars, interviews and parties. Here are some figures to put the event into perspective:
9
The number of film stars and directors on the jury that will decide the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. Led by George Miller, the Australian director of the “Mad Max” movies, the panel includes Kirsten Dunst, Donald Sutherland, Vanessa Paradis and Danish “baddie” specialist Mads Mikkelsen.
19
The number of golden leaves on the stylised palm frond that makes up the Palme d’Or. The trophy, made out of 18-carat gold, is worth 20,000 euros ($23,000).
24
The number of steps the stars have to climb as they ascend the red carpet into Cannes’ Palais des Festivals.
60
The length in metres of the famous red carpet (nearly 197 feet). A new carpet is laid before each official screening of a film in competition, meaning 180 metres of carpet are used each day.
45,000
The number of people with official accreditations to attend the festival, of which around 4,500 are journalists.
500
The number of security personnel who will be deployed at the Palais des Festivals where the main competition films will be shown — not counting the hundreds of police and paramilitary gendarmes patrolling the area around it.
20,000,000
The festival’s budget, in euros (around $23 million). Half the funding comes from French taxpayers, the other half from corporate sponsors.
89
The number of features to be screened this year in the festival, including 56 in the official selection (of which 21 are competing for the Palme d’Or).
From 74,000 to 200,000
That’s how much Cannes’ population swells during the festival. It nearly triples.
468
Smile, there are cameras everywhere (and not just movie and TV ones). This is the number of surveillance cameras filming the town 24 hours a day, with lenses especially trained on the Palais des Festivals building and all along the seafront, known as La Croisette.
12,000
The number of movers and shakers taking part in Cannes’ parallel film market, happening in the bowels of the Palais des Festivals and along part of the beach. This maze of stands is where producers, directors and distributors get together to work out what you’ll be watching on the big screen in months and years to come.
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