Unlock opportunities at Cannes and other A-list film festivals with these top tips from filmmaker Carla B. Guttmann.
Carla B. Guttmann is an accomplished filmmaker and A-list festival coach whose career has spanned the international film circuit, from Los Angeles to Toronto. After a breakout debut that saw her treated as “festival royalty”, Carla faced the sobering reality of the industry’s gatekeeping and the hidden complexities of European film markets.
Through years of trial, error and a transformative encounter, she decoded the professional structures of A-list festivals – moving beyond the red carpet and into the world of film markets and strategic networking.
In this article, Carla shares her hard-won insights to help the next generation of directors and actors navigate the film festival circuit with purpose.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- What film markets are and why they matter to actors.
- How to get accreditation to attend film market meetings and studio panels.
- Methods for using professional databases to research and schedule one-to-one meetings with producers, directors, agents and casting directors.
- Why shifting focus from evening social circuits to daytime business events creates a safer and more productive networking environment.
A Dream Debut
At the beginning of my directing career in 2006, I attended both Toronto and Los Angeles film festivals with my dance film, The Double Woman. It was a magical experience, meeting filmmakers from all over the world, and we were led around the festival like proverbial film festival royalty.
My film was in competition. I was given a fund from German Films to travel from Berlin to Toronto, I had someone cutting press clippings for me and I was invited by the festival itself to an intimate dinner to meet future producers. Time Magazine even hosted an event for all the filmmakers in competition.
An equally warm reception awaited me at the ArcLight cinema in Los Angeles. Both festivals emitted an atmosphere of respect and hope for all the filmmakers who had made it into the competition and had travelled far and wide to screen their work. We were on the verge of a tipping point and it felt like the one we had all been eagerly awaiting.
The Reality Check
Only two years later, no one knew of my film, no one seemed to care and I felt like I was starting completely from scratch.
Over the years, I attended Berlinale and later, Cannes, going to the cocktail hours and festival parties that were open to anyone with a festival accreditation. There, I would try to figure out who the producers were in the room and start a conversation to pitch my feature film ideas. I was convinced the cocktail parties were about meeting feature film producers and I felt very confident that I was going about this the right way. I was wrong.
The producers at these cocktail parties were not interested in my pitches: they wanted to unwind, have fun and party. I thought I had the right accreditation to move my career ahead, but instead these parties led to an anthology of experiences where I was treated like a pretty object to be passed around. This left me really confused about how to move forward, not just as a filmmaker but as a woman in the industry.
The Market Approach
All that changed when I met the L.A. film professional Sydney Levine at the Canadian Embassy party at the Berlinale. Sydney was the original founder of Film Finders, which was later bought and integrated into IMDb. She took me aside and explained how the European film market works and it was this 20-minute conversation that truly changed the trajectory of my directing career and, equally, the lives of the actors that I’ve coached.
Sydney taught me that A-list festivals are not just about film screenings and evening parties – they happen during the day too at their markets. The markets consist of daytime events, panels and one-to-one meetings that you can pre-book yourself.
Once I realised this, I acquired access to the databases associated with the film markets, which finally enabled me to write to producers and set up one-to-one daytime meetings with them. At the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF), I met one-on-one with the producer for Swedish director Roy Andersson. I found my German co-producer for my feature film, The Bra. I pitched to a Belgian Film Fund Manager at a law firm event at the Berlinale and followed up at Cannes years later. At the Göteborg Film Festival, I had a one-to-one meeting with Bo Ehrhardt, the producer of the award-winning Danish-Swedish series, The Bridge.
I achieved all this after years of struggle by:
- Using film market accreditation
- Utilising film festivals’ industry databases
- Understanding how to strategically communicate with the buyers of my talent.
The Cannes Social Pub Quiz
Spotlight and Filmmakers Europe members can join us at the Cannes Film Festival where we’ll be co-hosting an informal Industry Pub Quiz. It’s a chance to put your film knowledge to the test but most importantly, an opportunity to meet and chat with people you might not have otherwise met. Reserve your place.
Why Film Festival Markets Matter to Actors
Festival markets run in parallel to the festival itself and, traditionally, they’re reserved for sales agents, distributors, financiers, investors, production companies and producers. At Cannes, for example, as well as the film festival, the Marché du Film runs in tandem with 15,000 film professionals from 140 countries in one spot doing business.
At Berlinale, the festival and the European Film Market, which is the largest and oldest film market in Europe, run simultaneously. This is to accommodate the buyers and sellers of films who need to move effortlessly between the screenings and the sales of films, in both the festival and the market contexts.
For decades, actors have been given access to festival accreditations – not market accreditations – that enable invitations to cocktail hours, parties and premieres only. They’ve not been allowed to join the ‘club’ that actually drives the business and pumps millions of dollars into the film industry each year. The majority of actors don’t even know they can book one-to-one daytime and professional meetings with directors, producers, casting directors, agents and even streamers at these festivals. Essentially, actors are left behind an invisible wall which both reveres and disempowers them all at once.
How to Attend Film Markets
Fortunately, by the grace of the film gods, there is one important loophole that has the potential to set actors free: top film markets accept multi-hyphenates. This means that actors who work as an actor-writer, actor-producer or actor-director are allowed to attend film markets and leverage them for their career.
Once you gain this level of accreditation, you can use the markets’ respective databases with 68,000 contacts to reach out to potential employers from every corner of the world. This gives you the chance to research directors, producers, casting directors and agents in databases based on the countries where you want to work.
You can then set daytime meetings in a context which is both safe and professional. The Marché du Film at Cannes alone has 4,000 projects registered at the market, all of which are not yet cast! You’ll also gain access to panels with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and HBO and see first time pitches of uncast projects.
Top Tips for Applying for Market Accreditation
Many of my greatest success stories as a coach came from actors in my programs who were, in fact, rejected by Cannes on an actor’s accreditation, only to be accepted to the Marché du Film. There, they signed with new agents as actors and writers, signed development and shopping agreements for scripts, met one-to-one with directors and producers of Oscar-winning films and financiers for their own features, and were invited to auditions.
My top advice to any actor who wants to avoid festival mayhem is:
- Apply for a market accreditation: Use festivals to meet producers, directors, casting directors and agents who believe in your artistic profile.
- Pre-book your meetings: This will allow you to have a safe, sustainable and successful festival experience in alignment with your greatest ideals and career ambitions.
Other Ways to Apply for Cannes
If your application for market accreditation is not successful, you can also apply to Cannes specifically in the following ways:
- Cinephiles Accreditation: This gives actors access to the films of Cannes’ Official Selection, The Directors’ Fortnight (Quinzaine des Cinéastes) and the Semaine de la Critique. The latter two are prestigious parallel sections organised by the French Filmmakers Society and the French Cinema Criticism Syndicate (SFCC). They both champion new talent, showcase avant-garde fiction and non-fiction films, first and second feature directors, and short films which are outside the main competition. If you are a film student, member of film school groups, cultural associations or film clubs, you will qualify for this accreditation.
- Three Days in Cannes Accreditation: This is meant for film enthusiasts aged 18-28 and gives you access to films in Cannes’ Official Selection during three allocated days of the festival.
- Press Accreditation: This is granted if you have ever done publicity for a film or another film festival, then you can use this professional status to get a Press accreditation at Cannes. This will provide you with access to the Palais des Festivals premieres, dedicated workspaces, and priority viewing of official films, although it does not guarantee entry to all screenings.
- Marché Day Pass: This is offered on a first come, first serve basis during the nine days of the market. You can acquire a total of three days inside the market and they do not need to be consecutive days, so you can plan your day pass around specific events. Please note: you will not have access to the market database otherwise given to those attending on a Marché accreditation.
- Online Marché Accreditation: Normally used by producers, this accreditation enables film professionals to participate in Zoom meetings, speed dating, panels and real-time meetings from their homes.
With the right tools and a resilient mindset, so much can be achieved for actors at Cannes and other A-list festivals. My A-List Festival Programs runs 12 months a year and helps actors strategically position themselves at major international film festivals.
If you’d like more information about Carla’s online programs, you can contact her at team@a-listfestivalcoach.com , via the A-list Festival Coach website or on Instagram.
International director and German Directors Guild member Carla B. Guttmann has written and directed amongst others, the award winning dance film ‘The Double Woman’, ‘Crossing Paths’ and the television documentary ‘Making Heart of Fire’.
Carla leverages her award-winning filmmaking background and festival success at TIFF and Los Angeles Film Festival to empower actors through her company, A-List Festival Coach. By utilising her signature “pre-booking strategy”, she connects performers directly with top-tier producers, directors, casting directors and agents at major global markets. Carla’s mission is to democratise industry access, helping actors secure high-profile representation and career-defining meetings through a sustainable, empowered path.
