Standing ovations lasting seven to nine minutes are a regular occurrence at the Cannes Film Festival, a tradition that has continued for decades. Over time, records have emerged celebrating the films that received the lengthiest applause in the festival’s history.
The record-breaking ovation
In 2006, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro debuted his dark fantasy El laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth) at Cannes. Made with a modest $14 million budget, the film tells the story of a young girl’s imaginative escape during the horrors of World War II.
At its premiere, the film earned a historic 22-minute standing ovation — the longest ever recorded at Cannes.
Reflecting on that moment in a 2015 interview with GQ, del Toro said, “It’s hard to describe what it is, to go that long, because the first three, four minutes, you're bathed in a sort of realm of acceptance and joy. Ten minutes in, you don’t know what to do,” adding, “You're just smiling and nodding. And in the middle of that, Alfonso Cuarón, who was next to me, gave me a strong pat on the back and he said, ‘Allow yourself to be loved, man.’ And then I just opened myself up to that ovation, and it went for the full 22 minutes. And it was only when they opened the doors of the Palais to let people out, that it started subsiding.”
Pan’s Labyrinth: a critical and commercial triumph
The film, starring Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones, and Ariadna Gil, went on to achieve both critical and commercial success. It earned $84 million globally, far exceeding its initial budget.
In the U.S. alone, it generated $55 million in DVD sales, making it one of the top-selling home entertainment titles of its time. Pan’s Labyrinth won three Academy Awards and numerous other accolades, with Metacritic naming it “the best reviewed film of the decade” in 2010. It continues to appear on numerous lists of the greatest 100 films of all time.
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
Bd-pratidin English/FNC
