Every year at the Cannes Film Festival, there is a dispute about whether the duration of a film’s standing ovation is a reliable indicator of its quality. But there’s no disputing that ovation times are tracked annually, whether you view this as an entertaining cinematic custom or an oversimplified waste of time. Some experts in the film industry believe that the number of minutes of standing ovation a highly anticipated picture receives on the Croisette holds equal importance to the initial round of reviews.
For years, Cannes goers have been renowned for their audacious reactions to new films. At the largest film festival in the world, there is almost never a lukewarm reaction—at least not one that an American viewer would identify as such. Almost every movie gets a loud round of applause or a standing ovation (or sometimes both). The extravagant reactions are a ritual unto themselves, and many see the custom as an affirmation that movies are works of art deserving of our unrestrained ardour.
Not all films that receive negative reviews are awful; at some point, Croisette has directed her ire towards several undeniable classics. Not every movie that gets a standing ovation becomes a historical classic, either. However, few things are as exciting as getting a thunderous reception for your picture in Cannes, especially if it’s your feature debut. The first chapter of a film’s legacy is written by its applause at Cannes, but critics, foreign audiences, and Oscar voters all have a say in it.
Before “Megalopolis” even opened in 2024, Francis Ford Coppola, Adam Driver, and other actors were just getting there. And then another once the movie, which delighted David Ehrlich of IndieWire and confused some others, truly concluded.
A nine-minute standing ovation for Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” in 2023 started the custom, which is all the more remarkable given that the crowd had been in the theatre for 206 minutes. The standing ovation can be seen as a testament to the film’s quality as well as a thank you to the film’s renowned director and his A-list cast for travelling to the festival.
Such moments are frequently captured in Cannes history and contribute to the festival’s allure. For a rundown of the movies that have gotten the longest standing ovations at the Cannes Film Festival over the years, keep reading.
