Cannes Market Goes Beyond Film Sales With AI, Creator Economy Focus
Guillaume Esmiol, Executive Director of the Cannes Film Market
Courtesy of the Cannes Film Market
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Guillaume Esmiol has spent the past several years quietly remaking the Cannes Marché du Film in his own image — which is to say, in the image of someone who came up not through traditional film sales but through tech and finance innovation. He began his career in business development and digital media innovation roles at French network TFI, and did a stint at corporate start-up studio Wefound before succeeding Jérôme Paillard as head of the Cannes Market, taking over as sole boss in 2023.
Under his direction, the Marché has expanded beyond its core role as the world’s leading market for buying and selling independent films, to include a sprawling schedule of 250 panels and events covering everything from private equity financing to artificial intelligence and, new this year, the creator economy.
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Ahead of the 2026 edition, Esmiol sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss where the film industry’s most important marketplace is headed.
When you took over the Marché, you came from a technology and innovation background rather than traditional film sales. What was your vision for what the market should become?
It actually took me a while to fully understand what the Marché really is, and I always use this explanation with my team: The Marché has three markets in one. The first is the market of film sales — the booths, the screenings, all the networking between sales companies and distributors. But we are also a market to develop and finance film projects. The third market is the market of knowledge. This year, we’ve organized or will host 250 events, including panels and conferences, all during one edition of the Marché. It’s where I put all the key topics of the industry: innovation and, AI of course, but also the state of the industry, sustainability, and, for the first time this year, the creator economy.
AI is both the great hope and the great fear for many in this industry. How do you approach covering it at the Marché?
If people have fears, I think it’s our role to explain the topic and to address those fears. We like to explain how the technology works, but also host all the debates on its impact, including around IP rights, and also to illustrate the opportunities. I also like to have real, concrete use cases and not just discussions — very concrete examples of how this technology has been used on actual films. That being said, I think it’s important to create a framework that respects what we support. We don’t want to speak about AI replacing creativity; we want to speak about AI and tech enhancing creativity and creating new business opportunities. That’s also why we don’t create just an “AI summit”, but an “AI for Talent Summit.”
Can you share any specific sessions from this year’s program that exemplify that approach?
We’re going to have a panel with James Manyika [Senior VP and President for Research, Labs, Technology & Society at Google-Alphabet] and Darren Aronofsky. He is an amazing film director and producer, and I think it’s very interesting to see how he’s using AI. They’ll be speaking together at the AI for Talent Summit on Saturday morning. There will be many other discussions between film professionals, such as director Xavier Gens and Guillaume Duchemin, director of La Fémis [the prestigious cinema school] and industry leaders from tech companies such as Nvidia, OpenAI, and top startups. It will be interesting to let them speak about what they’re really doing. Because when you’re talking with them, you realize that there are actually a lot of humans involved in their projects. It’s far from the shortcuts that we sometimes hear.
Why did you decide to bring the creator economy into the Marché this year?
In these last years, there have been more and more very interesting use cases. In France, Kaizen is a very interesting one. The film [a documentary about YouTube star Inoxtag attempting to climb Mount Everest] it was distributed by MK2, and they made huge numbers in movie theaters. It proved how a creator can activate their community and bring a different audience to theaters. But there’s another use case I find very fascinating: Markiplier. He’s American