Inside the industry machinery of Cannes, where emerging Filipino producer Christelle Lou Dychangco navigates the festival’s most crucial conversations.
Stars ascending red-carpeted steps, paparazzi flashbulbs, and standing ovations. That is the Cannes Film Festival that most of the world sees. But for every glamorous moment, there are countless hours of industry machinery humming behind the scenes. This year, the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) represented the country at the Cannes’s Marché du Film, the festival’s industry market. Among the delegation was Christelle Lou Dychangco, founder and CEO of Clou Media Productions.
For emerging producers like Christelle, who recently completed her first feature-length film, First Light, a Filipino-Australian co-production starring Ruby Ruiz and directed by James J. Robinson, set to premiere soon, Cannes represents both a culmination and a beginning. In an exclusive account for Lifestyle Asia, she takes us inside the reality of navigating one of the world’s most important film markets.
For a producer, the Cannes Film Festival isn’t just glitz and glam, it’s something far deeper. For me, the real magic lives in destiny, in the chance conversations with strangers who instantly feel like kindred spirits because we speak the same language: film, production, financing, and story.
It’s not just about the red carpets. It’s about everything it takes to get there. The unseen labor, dreaming, and wishing. The belief in a film or story long before it exists. That, to me, is real glamour: the courage to keep creating, the grit behind every connection made, every door knocked, every dream pitched.
That’s the version of Cannes I want to share. Not just the spectacle, but the heart and soul of the film industry, as part of this year’s Philippine delegation of the Marché du Film’s Producers Network.
Day One
02:00: Jetlag? Inevitable. It’s 2 AM in Cannes, 9 AM in the Philippines, and I’m already mid-thread with my team back home (I thought I could “sleep on it,” but no… Slack wins again). It’s as if my brain is on two continents at once. Which, I guess, it is.
06:00: I’m fully awake and tricking my brain to think this is my usual morning routine. The boulangerie around the corner opens at 630, so I wait like it’s a sacred pilgrimage for my first pain au chocolat and a small moment of gratitude before the Producers Network madness begins.
07:30: I’m running on excitement. Now fully dressed in corporate, complete with my Producers Badge to conceal what I feel is imposter syndrome creeping in, caffeinated, and walking toward the Marché du Film, but first, a quick stop at the marché. Yes, the other marché. The one with fresh flowers and fruit.
09:30: I’ve booked myself for what I think is a calm, immersive experience and screening before our first Producers Brunch Meeting… except I realize at the last minute it’s not at Palais des Festivals. It’s at the Martinez Hotel. Cue the panic! What was meant to be a five-minute stroll turns into a full sprint across the Boulevard de la Croisette… in wedges. Note: It’s Day 1.
I make it in 15 minutes. Just on time.
The immersive experience brings me into a room where I sit at the back of a taxi, which opens with the question: “What’s one secret desire you haven’t told anyone?”
And just like that, I’m thrown into story mode. My producer brain switches on immediately, and it hits me: I’M IN CANNES. AS A PRODUCER. This has been my not-so-secret desire.
10:30: Afterward, I stroll back to the Palais with a little more intention, stopping by the Philippine-Singapore Pavilion to say hello to the FDCP team, before then lining up to get into the Producers Club for brunch. It’s a mix of chaos and calm getting my bearings. I sit at the first empty table and, surprisingly, I feel like I belong. I feel seen.
12:00: With the only free time I will have over the next few days, I spend a few hours exploring the Marché du Film stalls. I capture photos, selfies, and send proof of life. Because: Cannes. No shame.
15:00: Next on the schedule is our first B2B. This is basically international speed dating… but for producers. The Philippine delegates are paired with the Taiwanese delegates. We rotate tables, pitching ourselves and our country, asking questions, and seeing what fits. It’s even more fun for me to get to know fellow Philippine delegates, too!
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18:00: It’s time for the Opening Cocktail. More networking. More smiles. More mental notes. I make rounds with a glass of wine, but my mind’s still racing: What do they need? What do I need? What can we co-produce? All this while trying not to feel the lack of sleep from jetlag.
The sun starts to set over La Croisette. It’s only Day 1, but I already feel the blur of it all, and yet also somehow feel completely present.
Day Two
04:00: Jetlag. Still. I’m up before the sun, answering messages from Manila like it’s midday. It’s not. It’s 4 AM. But back home, it’s go-time. I’m already anticipating my 630 AM pilgrimage for pain au chocolat. This is a ritual now. I’ve accepted it.
08:30: I’m dressed (in flats this time!) and in the lineup for the Producers Breakfast Meetings. It starts at 9 AM, and breakfast is a networking zone. So, it’s coffee in one hand and orange juice in the other, since the pastry’s already been had.
We dive in. And today, I’m more intentional. I sit with a speaker I had researched ahead of time, drawn to her biography. I am also starstruck to find out during intros that she’s already aware of the feature film I had just co-produced, First Light. I am left chasing time, and the hour and a half suddenly feels short.
I run out, scanning streets for a spot that isn’t blocked off (easier said than done during Cannes), and finally catch an Uber up to a villa in the hills. There, I meet coworkers I’ve only talked with through email threads and message chains. Now, we’re suddenly in the same room, same timezone.
The intros go straight into real talk. Film talk. Japan. Thailand. London. Philippines. All repping Indochina Productions. We get one quick photo before we scatter again, because if there’s no photo, did it even happen?
14:00: No pause. Back to the Producers Hub for a speaker session. The speaker? Someone I instantly Instagram stalked and found out she was on last year’s Forbes‘s 30 Under 30. Instant fan. Shoutout @pinkypromisefilms, another “emerging producer,” as we’re called.
17:30: We’ve moved from coffee to wine, and I’m still in conversation mode. No outfit change, just a mindset shift and red lipstick that I came prepared with to transition from day to night.
20:30: From cocktail hour to casual drinks to Thai Night at the Carlton. It’s Day 2, and I’m already craving Asian food. But Thai Night is more than that. It’s a grand event hosted by Thailand to showcase what their country offers in film. So, so inspiring. And a hope: that one day, the Philippines hosts the same kind of celebration.
23:00: We finally land at dinner. Not a quick bite. A real dinner. One you earn. Then, home. Then, rest. Because tomorrow? We do it all over again. Hopefully with a little less jetlag. A little more ease. More aligned networking. Deeper conversations. Another pain au chocolat (non-negotiable). Maybe a film screening, if I’m lucky to land a ticket and find the time. And definitely, another after-party hosted by another country.
Cannes doesn’t slow down. And neither do we.
Day Three
I can now confidently say: Bonjour, merci, and s’il vous plaît. Ahah! So, naturally, I add a French touch to my outfit with a Cannes merch scarf I bought the second I landed. Wrapped casually around my neck, I feel like I belong here. Christelle in Cannes?
I’ve got a routine now, too:
Early start.
Content that I promised my Clou team back home that I’d take for our socials.
And then straight to the Producers Breakfast.
Still tired from last night, but as the wall inside the Producers Club says: “Home for the world’s producers, powered by passion.” So I let the passion power me through.
After breakfast, I head to the Nespresso Beach Club while waiting for my meeting with our film distributors. It is my first time meeting them in real life, so yes, I came prepared. The Pinoy/Cebuana in me brought hospitality and pasalubong in the form of dried mangoes.
We meet on their balcony overlooking the harbor, where million-dollar yachts casually float under the sun. It’s warm. We’re catching up, getting to know each other, and talking about where First Light‘s world premiere might land. It’s one of those “pinch me” moments I’ll carry forever.
Timestamps? Lost at this point.
From there, I make my way back to the Philippine Pavilion for B2Bs. First with Korea, and then Singapore. More new faces. More shared visions.
My social battery is low, but my purpose is clear. I know who I am here for. What I stand for. And why I show up: for myself, for the Philippines.
We close the day at Japan Night, where a geisha-dressed DJ spins until we’re spinning from the sake. Only in Cannes can a day start with coffee… and end with techno and tradition colliding in the most cinematic way.
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Tomorrow, we do it all over again, pursuing unexpected moments of chance, conversations that change everything, and the quiet certainty that what once was a desire has now become reality.
As an emerging Filipino producer on this global stage, Cannes to me isn’t about glamour for glamour’s sake. My days here are defined by my relentless effort to create something from imagination. And behind every producer’s disease of optimism is the true heart and soul that keeps the film industry alive.
Right moments. Right time. Destiny.
