Cannes in a Van Film Festival 2013 – blog 1

Day 1:

“And so the journey has begun.”

It’s that time of year again, Cannes in a Van has made its annual trip down to the south of France to screen the finest selection of independent shorts from around Europe on the Croisette. Leaving London around 8PM on Tuesday evening, we hot-footed it down to Folkestone to catch the tunnel to Calais and begin our 13 hours drive down to the French Riviera.

The journey began well, stopping off at various service stations to test out their finest coffee machines and purchase numerous sugar filled snacks, our spirits were high in the initial stages (probably due to the stimulants we’d consumed). However after several hours on the road, our heads began to droop. Deep in the countryside of northern France with little-to-no internet access, we agreed to stop and catch up on a few hours sleep in the van. It turns out 3 people sleeping in the front of a van can prove to be quite an uncomfortable experience, the fight for leg room was fierce. After a few hours sleep (no one is sure exactly how many) and dreams of better head support, the sun rose and we were back on the road with the taste of Red Bull in our mouths and sharp pains in our necks.

Not long after we’d clocked a few more miles, we came to the frightening realisation that we were being followed by the English weather causing us to motor on through torrential rain and test the van’s ability to hold the road. Voted “Van Of The Year 2013” our new Ford Transit Custom had a few new features that Andy was excited to try, including a rear-parking camera and a devilishly seductive built-in sat-nav (she hasn’t got a name yet, we’ll think of one soon).

We experienced a slightly awkward twenty minutes when Andy checked his paperwork for the accommodation only to realise he’d booked it for the day after we were due to arrive. This however, in the true spirit of CIAV was corrected after he saw the date on the paper was last year. Panic over.

We arrived in Cannes a little later than expected but we are glad to now be booked into our stay, a little lodge for the crew with all the modern conveniences we need.

As the sun begins to break through the gloomy clouds, the crew are preparing for tonight’s first set of screenings, we’ve got our fingers crossed, hoping the weather doesn’t change. From untangling cables to testing the new 55” LCD screen, we’re hoping that our first night on the Croisette is a successful one filled with cracking independent short films and the buzz of some 200,000 people that flock to Cannes around this time of the year; let’s just hope the dark clouds avoid soaking our audience.

We’ll be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, and you can tweet us @cannesinavan with #CIAV and #Cannes2013.