Overview Variety opens the Cannes Film Festival with its Welcome to Cannes Party, and in 2026 the wooden structure built for it on the JW Marriott roof began to buckle under the guests, who moved across the terrace and kept going while Variety gave Thierry Frémaux its International Achievement in Film Award in his 25th year running the festival. The party is co-hosted with the Gotham Film and Media Institute. In 2025 Variety and the Golden Globes also threw a Breakthrough Artists party, and Variety held a Global Conversations Summit of four panels on filming incentives. Cannes first ran in 1946, usually falls in May at the Palais des Festivals and runs the Marché du Film alongside it. On site The party moves around the Croisette: Lucia Restaurant and Beach in 2024, where the dress was beach chic with sunglasses and rosé, the Salon Croisette at the Majestic Hotel in 2025, and the JW Marriott rooftop in 2026. In 2024 Lily Gladstone stepped away from jury duty to hand Ron Howard the Profile in Excellence Award, and in 2025 Sony Pictures Classics' Michael Barker presented Tarak Ben Ammar's award. The 2025 Breakthrough Artists party was at Lucia Beach, with a gnocchi bar and champagne for guests coming from the Die My Love premiere. Variety journalists moderate the summit panels, and the conversations are published on Variety.com afterward. Audience The guest lists run to the festival's business side: Sony Pictures Classics chiefs Barker and Tom Bernard, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Janet Yang in 2025, Lynette Howell Taylor in 2026), Netflix awards strategist Lisa Taback and Venice's Alberto Barbera, with actors such as Diane Kruger among them. Variety describes the summit audience as producers, sales agents, distributors and creatives weighing where to shoot. Talent and Influencers Accepting in 2025, Tarak Ben Ammar credited a decades-old Variety story on his pitch for Tunisia with bringing George Lucas to shoot Star Wars there. At that year's Breakthrough Artists party Paul Mescal presented Jeremy O. Harris with the Indie Film Icon Award, Ari Aster gave Micheal Ward a Breakthrough Artist award, Kruger gave another to Mia Threapleton, and Charlotte Gainsbourg took the Vanguard Award. Track record The 2025 summit was Variety's third at Cannes, with Cinecittà, Les Studios de Paris, the Royal Commission for AlUla and Bulgaria each taking a panel. The Welcome to Cannes honorees were Ron Howard in 2024, Tarak Ben Ammar in 2025 and Frémaux in 2026. Brand presence Each night carries its own partners. Disney Branded Television was Premier Partner of the 2024 Welcome party, with Avail and Bad Math as supporting partners and Christian Louboutin Beauté on cosmetics, and Runway supported the 2026 party. Bulova sponsored the 2025 Breakthrough Artists party. At the summit the partner is the territory itself: each studio or film commission takes a panel to lay out its facilities, incentives and crews.