Everything’s assembled: the red carpet, the Gucci dress, the scores of prying cameras and the cantankerous critics. The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most important dates in a film-maker’s diary, a launching pad for international success. As Harvey Weinstein, of the Weinstein Company, says: “If you have the right movie, this is the place to show it.”

But is it all really worth it? The Los Angeles Times claims that unveiling a film there can cost four times what it does at a Hollywood premiere – and even that can reach $750,000 (£380,000). First, there are the private jets, at $150,000 a pop, to transport American stars 6,000 miles (9,600km) across the Atlantic. Next come the soaring hotel prices: suites often cost about $3,000 a night, and rooms are so coveted that hotels sometimes make you book a minimum 12 nights. Then there’s the beauty budget: when the director Sofia Coppola took her film Marie Antoinette to the French Riviera last year, she spent $42,000 on hair and make-up stylists alone. Some production companies are starting to refuse the increasingly costly demands made by their actors, running the risk that the stars will refuse to attend.

Fortunately, Britain has found a cunning way to avoid this problem: just fail to send films to Cannes in the first place.

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