Cannes ticket holders turned away at ‘Once Upon a Time In Hollywood’ premiere

The Cannes Film Festival has been “a hot mess” this year,  according to industry insiders, and Tuesday night proved it — with hundreds of ticket holders reportedly getting turned away from the highly-anticipated premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film, “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood.”

“I was so disappointed. I’ve been coming to the festival for a decade,” said one longtime movie buyer, who spoke to Deadline. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s really bad form.”

Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro was at the event — held at the Grand Lumiere, 25 years to the day after “Pulp Fiction” debuted at Cannes — and was also turned away, despite having his ticket scanned.

“This is a complete F-up on behalf of the festival, exemplifying its red carpet mismanagement and the overall pretension of the staff,” D’Allesandro wrote in his report on the premiere. “It’s what everybody hates about Cannes, and the festival provided no acceptable answer as to why many were held back from entering the venue, even though they arrived early.”

D’Alessandro said he and roughly 100-200 balcony ticket holders — “many who paid $1,000+” — were held hostage on the red carpet for an hour “while orchestra and mezzanine ticket holders were fast-tracked into the venue even as the celebrity guests were arriving.”

Once the A-listers were all inside, security told balcony ticket holders that there were no more seats left, even though D’Alessandro had “heard otherwise.”

“Get off the red carpet or get arrested was the message sent,” he said. “I informed the Cannes ushers that Sony reps were coming down to escort me into an open seat, but in robotic form they told me and the crowd to exit the GTL perimeter, or else the cops would force us out.”

D’Allessandro called on Cannes to “be more professional and courteous with their guests” during future events.

“Our tickets were scanned — that meant we were guaranteed seats,” he said. “There’s no excuse. Cannes should be embarrassed because you don’t see this type of treatment at other global festivals like Sundance, Toronto or Berlin.”

The French movie fest has suffered from a number of PR and marketing problems this year — including the late release of press screening schedules and controversial honoring of actor Alain Delon, an alleged woman beater.

“What a hot mess,” said one awards-season publicist. “I got to Cannes this year and my badge was downgraded. The festival is so disorganized.”

Reps for Cannes did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

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