Level 1 — Absolute Beginner

Cannes is a town in the south of France. Each May, a big film festival happens there. Many famous actors come.

On May 17, 2026, a new French film called 'Garance' was shown for the first time. It was a Sunday night.

After the film, people stood up. They clapped for twelve minutes. That is a very long time. It is the longest clap at the festival this year.

The film is about a young woman. She is an actress. She has many problems in her life. Adèle Exarchopoulos plays the woman.

Cannes

a small city in the south of France

festival

a big public event where many people come together to enjoy films, music or food

film

a moving picture, also called a movie

actor

a person who plays a role in a film or a play

actress

a woman who plays a role in a film or a play

to clap

to hit your hands together to show that you like something

minute

a unit of time equal to 60 seconds

premiere

the first time a film is shown to the public

Level 2 — Elementary

The Cannes Film Festival is held every May on the French Riviera. It is one of the oldest and most famous film events in the world. Many directors hope to win the top prize, called the Palme d'Or.

On Sunday, May 17, 2026, the French director Jeanne Herry showed her new film, 'Garance', for the first time at the festival. The screening was in the main hall, the Grand Théâtre Lumière.

When the film finished, the audience stood up and clapped for twelve minutes. This was the longest clap of this year's Cannes festival. The director and the actors went on the stage. They smiled and waved to the crowd. The actress Adèle Exarchopoulos was very moved.

The story is about a young woman who works as an actress in Paris. She drinks too much, her family has problems, and she falls in love with the wrong man. Newspapers say the film is now one of the favourites to win the Palme d'Or this year.

Cannes Film Festival

a major international film festival held every May in Cannes, France

French Riviera

the sunny southern coast of France along the Mediterranean Sea, popular with tourists

Palme d'Or

the top award at Cannes, given to the best film in the main competition

director

the person who is in charge of making a film and tells the actors what to do

Grand Théâtre Lumière

the largest cinema hall inside the Palais des Festivals, with about 2,300 seats

screening

a public showing of a film

audience

a group of people who watch or listen to something together

favourite

the person or thing that most people expect to win a competition

Level 3 — Intermediate

Jeanne Herry's third feature film, 'Garance', received a wild twelve-minute standing ovation at its world premiere in the Grand Théâtre Lumière on Sunday evening, May 17, 2026, becoming the longest sustained applause of the 79th Cannes Film Festival so far. Herry, the daughter of the actress Miou-Miou and the singer Julien Clerc, previously took her ensemble dramas 'Pupille' and 'Park Bench' to Cannes; this is her first time in the main competition.

The film stars Adèle Exarchopoulos as a struggling thirty-something actress whose career, alcohol dependency, fractured family and chaotic love life all converge over a single Parisian winter. She is surrounded by an unusually deep ensemble: Karim Leklou plays a former co-star turned uneasy confidant, Anaïs Demoustier her older sister, and Reda Kateb a producer whose protective instincts curdle into something more controlling. Trade reviewers from Variety, Indiewire and Le Film Français have praised Herry's tonal control and the unbroken twelve-minute closing take.

The post-screening ovation reached its peak when Exarchopoulos, visibly emotional, was lifted onto the shoulders of two of her co-stars. Herry — who collaborated with cinematographer Caroline Champetier and editor Jean-Baptiste Beaudoin — was repeatedly returned to the microphone by the crowd and ultimately addressed the audience to thank her mother, in the auditorium for the screening, and the late director Jacques Audiard, to whom the film is dedicated.

Bookmaker William Hill moved 'Garance' to joint second favourite for the Palme d'Or at 7-to-2, behind only Pawel Pawlikowski's monochrome Stasi drama 'Fatherland', which received a six-minute reception three nights earlier. The Palme winner will be announced by jury president Park Chan-wook at the closing ceremony on Saturday, May 23. North American rights to 'Garance' remain unsold; A24 and Sony Pictures Classics are reportedly the leading bidders.

feature film

a long film made for cinema release, usually at least 70 minutes long, as opposed to a short

ensemble

a group of actors who share roughly equal screen time in a single production

alcohol dependency

the medical condition in which a person cannot stop drinking alcohol without severe withdrawal symptoms

long take

a continuous shot in a film that lasts much longer than the average cut, used to create tension or intimacy

cinematographer

the person responsible for the camera and lighting work on a film, also known as the director of photography

bookmaker

a company that takes bets on the outcome of contests such as award ceremonies or sports events

Stasi

the East German state security service (1950–1990), notorious for surveillance of its own citizens

rights

the legal permission to distribute a film in a particular territory; sold in deals at major festivals

Level 4 — Advanced

Jeanne Herry's main-competition entry 'Garance' detonated inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière on Sunday evening, May 17, 2026, drawing a feverish twelve-minute standing ovation that eclipsed the previous high-water mark of the 79th Cannes Film Festival — the seven-minute reception accorded a few days earlier to Pawel Pawlikowski's Stasi-era drama 'Fatherland'. The picture marks Herry's first invitation to the official selection after two festival darlings, 'Pupille' (2018) and 'Park Bench' (2023), and confirms the third generation of a French acting dynasty whose patriarch is the singer Julien Clerc and whose matriarch is the New Wave fixture Miou-Miou.

Adèle Exarchopoulos anchors the film as Garance, a thirty-three-year-old jobbing actress whose career flickers between vanity-project shorts and television guest spots while her private life implodes — a sister leaving her husband, a mother spiralling through chemotherapy, a producer whose mentorship slides into coercion, and an alcohol dependency tightening across the Parisian winter. The supporting bench is unusually deep, with Karim Leklou as a former on-set co-star, Anaïs Demoustier as the elder sister and Reda Kateb as the producer; Variety's Peter Debruge singled out the unbroken twelve-minute closing take, shot on 35mm Kodak Vision3 500T by Caroline Champetier, as 'the most quietly virtuosic long-take of the year so far.'

Backstage, A24 and Sony Pictures Classics — both still reeling from this year's high-priced A24 acquisition of James Gray's 'Paper Tiger' for $14 million plus P&A — were openly bidding in adjacent corridors of the Majestic Hotel, with Mubi entering as a stalking horse on the international side. The Memento Distribution sales agents are said to be pricing North American rights at $9 million all-in, well above the typical French-language ceiling but below the 'Anatomy of a Fall' precedent set in 2023. Herry herself addressed the auditorium for nearly three minutes, dedicating the film to the late Jacques Audiard and acknowledging her mother, who was sitting in row K.

By Monday morning, William Hill had repriced the Palme d'Or market: 'Fatherland' remained narrow favourite at 5-to-2, 'Garance' jumped to joint second at 7-to-2 alongside Asghar Farhadi's 'Parallel Tales', and James Gray's 'Paper Tiger' slipped to fourth at 8-to-1. Jury president Park Chan-wook — whose only public remark to date has been a wry observation that 'this Cannes is going to be a difficult one to legislate' — will deliver his verdict at the closing ceremony on Saturday, May 23. Whether or not Herry leaves the Croisette with hardware, the long-take Sunday-night ovation has cemented her place in the festival's contemporary canon.

main competition

the slate of around twenty films at Cannes whose directors are eligible for the Palme d'Or and the other top jury prizes

vanity project

a film, album or play financed and produced primarily to satisfy the personal ambitions of one creator, often at financial risk