Cannes Film Festival is a celebration of movies and their stars. I spent my week trying to catch them all.

I spent an unforgettable week in the south of France this May, immersed among the celebrities and movies that I’d be writing about for at least the next year as they generated buzz for their projects at the Cannes Film Festival.

Between screenings and celeb-spotting excursions, I kept a diary about my first time in the glamorous alternate universe at Cannes. Let’s flip through it.

The hunt for influencers

My sleepless eight-hour overnight flight left me edgy yet determined, so the first thing I did when I landed in Nice was check my luggage at the hotel and speed over to Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. The eavesdropping was ideal among uber-wealthy lunchgoers, but there weren’t any social media stars, despite it being the go-to spot for celebrities to take photos channeling ’80s Harrison Ford.

I accidentally blew my per diem on a buffet with €15 water. I spent the rest of the week hanging out in hotel lobbies and finally infiltrated a TikTok creator lounge, where I learned that even if you have hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, you can still be starstruck by movie stars. Find out more about what I saw and what I heard here.

A middle school reunion

I wasn’t expecting to run into anyone I knew in Cannes this week, so imagine my surprise when I saw my best friend from middle school for the first time in 17 years. Jocelyn Yates wasn’t just at the festival — she was one of the creators TikTok brought to the red carpet, and she got to meet Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise!

I ran into her at the platform’s creator lounge after sprinting nearly a mile to get from the press room to an interview, and I had to dart away immediately afterward to get to a premiere. Luckily, it was enough time to snag a selfie and her new phone number, so we’ll be able to truly reconnect under less sweaty circumstances for me.

The go-to small talk topic

Anyone who spoke to me before I left for Cannes got an earful about how I had to use two different clothing rental companies to find the six evening gowns I packed for the festival, which has a strict and fancy dress code for premieres. I ended up needing only two, but I didn’t mind looking fabulous every day I was there. I’m ready to declare the heeled Crocs I wore here and to interview people outside the Met Gala as the best shoes for reporting. Not sponsored, just praising a comfy shoe!

During the festival, attendees couldn’t stop gossiping about newly added dress code rules that banned nudity and lengthy dress trains. People around me couldn’t stop asking, “Had you seen anyone get turned away?” “Who had to scramble to get a new outfit?” “Were the new ‘decency’ standards antiquated?” Read more about the dress code fallout.

A fan experience without the whimsy

One of my favorite things to do at events is stand outside and talk to fans about the passion that brought them there, so I was shocked when the people who lined up for celebrity spotting at Cannes were largely grumpy and unwilling to chat. My 38-day French Duolingo streak didn’t prepare me for that kind of conversational maneuvering.

Their fascination with movie stars was captivating, though, so I spent a very memorable evening in line with celebrity spotters, including a dog who has encountered more stars than this entertainment reporter and two cruise ship passengers who wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

The four-legged red carpet star

The most memorable person I met while mingling with fans near the red carpet was Cannes resident Cécile Forest, and her 4-year-old Chihuahua, Savanna. The tiny dog is always dressed in pink, and sometimes those outfits are customized for the movie premiere of the night. I’ve seen her in several memes and viral photos.

Forest told me on Instagram after I left the festival that Savanna is an ambassador for Culture de Wouf, which advocates for dogs to be allowed into more spaces.

“We believe that we must make life easier for owners, to reduce the number of abandonments. We must let dogs into stores so that there are fewer dog thefts on the sidewalks and fewer dogs dying locked in cars,” Forest told me.

My festival foe

I thought I’d be spending my downtime at the beach or sipping a cappuccino and people watching at a cafe, but because the Cannes Film Festival ticketing process is so intense, I spent every idle moment refreshing the ticketing page. I don’t regret my intensity at all — I got to see everything I wanted! — though sometimes it was mere minutes before a screening.

Iana Murray, a longtime X mutual whom I met for the first time in person over matcha near the Palais, attended Cannes for the seventh time this year. She told me the ticketing process is much better than it used to be. People had to stand in lines for hours to get into screenings. Next year, I’ll try to spend more time refreshing those pages in more scenic locations.

A bucket list achievement

As a first-timer, I didn’t get invited to many parties or exclusive events. I spent most of my time scrapping for tickets and conversation. The highly anticipated premiere of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning was by far the most glamorous and exclusive event I’ve ever been to in my entire life, probably. Read about the surreal experience here.

The chaos of constant clapping

I technically took part in two standing ovations, a tradition at Cannes. Movies are judged based on how long people stand and clap for them afterward. Five minutes is considered mediocre, and the longest recorded ovation was 22 minutes for Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006.

But I learned from witnessing one in person that there’s no true consensus on when an ovation begins and ends. Is it when the first person stands until the last person stops clapping? Or is it when the clapping begins until the final person stops standing? Is it both? Is it more of a vibes-based calculation? Critics and reporters haven’t reached a consensus.

A mysterious red carpet attendee

I watched the red carpet for Die, My Love from a window in the press office where photography was explicitly banned. In addition to beholding Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson with my own mortal eyes, I saw a person in what appeared to be a giant turkey costume. I assumed that the bird would be featured in the movie, but it was not. I still don’t know what happened there.

A great time at the movies

I knew I’d be missing out on about half of the buzzy Cannes titles because I only attended the first of two weeks of the festival, but I wasn’t ready to see people lauding Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value as the best of the bunch long after I’d left the Croisette. I may die of FOMO if I can’t see it soon. Still, I saw nearly a dozen films that I loved — several of which I know we’ll be talking about well into awards season. Read more about my favorites here.

Takes on a plane

The most pressing question I wanted to ask celebrities this week is what movies they watched on the plane on the way to Cannes, though I only got to ask two. The Phoenician Scheme star Jeffrey Wright told me he doesn’t watch movies on planes but he does play chess on his phone. His costar Rupert Friend said that tiny airplane screens are depressing to him, so he went to sleep.

On the flight to Cannes, everyone around me was watching something from the Mission: Impossible series, including me. On the way back to New York, though, everyone was watching Friends. I watched Oceans Eleven, Janet Planet and One of Them Days.

Blackout FOMO

I unexpectedly experienced a lot of FOMO when I read that a blackout hit the south of France ahead of the Cannes awards ceremony — and again when I read that it was suspected sabotage! Not only was I missing out on the festivities that may set the stage for the upcoming awards season, but there was drama afoot as well.

Survival by the numbers

According to my iPhone’s Health app, I walked an average of 9,900 steps per day — about 3,000 steps more than my typical count for film festivals over the last year. All the theaters were pretty close together, so I’m chalking this one up to the fact that it was just really beautiful outside and a joy to walk around.

On the other hand, I slept an average of 4 hours and 30 minutes every night in Cannes, which is about 2 hours less than the usual festival. One night, I slept only 29 minutes. My average bedtime was 2:40 a.m. I’m also blaming this on the fact that there was just so much to see.

The little things

When I talk about Cannes, I mention seeing Tom Cruise in person, spending hours in line and rubbing shoulders with the glamorous. But when I think about the moments I enjoyed the most, it’s the movie I got to watch on the beach after a long day, the chats with excited students who had long dreamed of walking the Croisette, the blurry pictures of fearless pigeons hunting for food and the last-minute trips to Steak and Shake when I was starving but unwilling to pay €35 for a salad.

Some of the magic of Cannes may be inherent in its exclusivity and European pretentiousness, which makes those quirky moments of charm all the more unforgettable.