Jane Owen: Even Without a Film in the Festival, You Still Require a Publicist

      Publicist Jane Owen has dedicated more than 20 years to transforming festival appearances into pivotal career highlights for filmmakers, whether they’re premiering films or not. From Cannes to Tribeca, Venice, and Toronto, the founder of JOPR elaborates on why attending without a press strategy is the most costly error one can make.—M.M.

      A unique silence envelops a filmmaker who arrives at a major festival unrepresented.

      This isn't the silence of eager anticipation; it’s the stillness of an individual in a bustling room where everyone else seems to know the social dance: whom to approach, which event truly matters, which conversation is a disguised pitch meeting, and the painful realization that they never mastered the moves.

      From Competition Halls to the Global Marketplace

      Film festivals haven’t always operated like this. When the Venice Film Festival was established in 1932, followed by Cannes in 1946, the goal was quite straightforward: gather top films, screen them, award prizes, and depart.

      For years, it was simple. You attended a festival if you had a film competing. If not, there was little reason to be present. The audience comprised cinephiles and critics, and the value was in artistic acclaim. Any business transactions were almost incidental—a brief handshake in a hotel bar or a conversation post-screening that managed to lead somewhere.

      This paradigm began to shift in the 1980s and 1990s as Sundance, Toronto, and an expanding Cannes Marché du Film evolved festivals into true marketplaces. Suddenly, along with critics, there were sales agents and acquisition executives present.

      Premieres morphed from mere artistic unveilings to commercial events serving as springboards for distribution deals, international sales, and the industry-wide attention that could define a film's financial journey. The red carpet became a runway, screenings turned into soft openings, and festivals transformed into business arenas.

      However, the prevailing belief remained that festivals were meant for filmmakers. Producers in between projects, financiers searching for prospects, technology firms, post-production houses, and actors waiting for their next roles stayed home. Festivals were social gatherings meant for others.

      Then the pandemic altered everything.

      COVID-19 disrupted the film industry globally in ways that have not fully reverted. Production shifted to new locations, financing became more international, fragmented, and reliant on relationships that cross numerous time zones. The rise of remote work led to the evaporation of informal, face-to-face networks that traditionally kept the industry connected—lunch meetings, quick office drop-ins, and serendipitous encounters at screenings disappeared almost instantly.

      When festivals resumed, they returned as something new: not merely showcases for completed works, but as one of the few remaining venues for the global film community to gather.

      In an industry dispersed from Los Angeles to London to Lagos to Seoul, where a producer in Connecticut might fund a film in Eastern Europe with a sales agent in Dubai, arranging face-to-face meetings outside the festival calendar has become nearly impossible.

      Cannes, Tribeca, Venice, and Toronto are no longer just film festivals. They have become the industry’s living room—where handshakes occur, trust is established, and deals that emails and Zoom calls fail to solidify finally come to fruition.

      Thus, the question of who should attend a festival and who requires a publicist upon arrival has fundamentally shifted.

      Introducing: Jane Owen PR

      I’ve watched this transformation happen from within and, in some aspects, have contributed to it.

      I am the CEO and founder of Jane Owen Public Relations, which I established in 2011. Now based in Los Angeles, New York, London, Dubai, and Connecticut, JOPR has received several Los Angeles Business Awards in public relations, and I was honored as Woman of the Year by the National Association of Professional Women.

      However, these accolades are not why my phone rings so frequently, nor why my calendar resembles less of a professional schedule and more of an intercontinental relay: starting from Cannes, moving to Tribeca, launching a new festival in Hartford, Connecticut, before heading back overseas for Venice and again for Toronto.

      I envision my work akin to a conductor leading a symphony—not as disconnected events, but as movements within a cohesive and purposeful composition.

      Cannes: The Testing Ground

      JOPR

      After commencing the year with Sundance and SXSW, the annual agenda continues at the Croisette in Cannes, showcasing how festival PR has evolved from traditional film promotions to comprehensive industry positioning.

      This year, JOPR is representing a diverse array of clients that mirrors the current festival economy: film financing platforms, emerging production companies, rising talents, media brands, experiential initiatives, and exclusive events that attract their unique crowds of press and industry leaders.

      Some clients will have films at the festival; many will not. All of them recognize that the Croisette during Cannes is not just a picturesque boulevard; it is the most coveted real estate in the entertainment sector for two weeks each year. Attending without a