A Dream Internship

Claire Farrell
Nov 27, 2018
3 min read

Still confused how I was allowed, but here's me walking the famous Red Carpet

Do you ever cross something off of your bucket list that you didn't realize was on it until you did it? Well that was exactly what happened to me when I had the incredible opportunity to intern at the 71st Cannes Film Festival last May. As an extension to my study abroad program in Antibes, France, myself and three fellow students were offered the chance to intern with the small Paris-based film company 2 Bulls on the Hill for the most famous international film festival.

Typically, 2 Bulls on the Hill has anywhere from 6-12 interns, but this year only accepted four of us. Having such a small group had its ups and downs for sure, for example all of the work of 12 fell on us, but in contrast we were able to get into more events being such a small unit. 2 Bulls on the Hill goes to Cannes annually to seek possible film collaborations with production companies globally as well as promote and find funding for current film projects. 2 Bulls does this by going to and hosting a series of networking parties/ events during the festival.

My official job title for the internship was PR intern and party meister (awesome title, I know) although in reality because we were such a small group of interns we worked on the same projects for the most part. During the festival, our team successfully executed four villa parties throughout the festival and found a few different investors that were able to fully fund 2 Bulls latest project (to be disclosed at a later date).

While this internship was definitely a lot of fun, it was constantly high stress. I basically had to be ready for anything and was told to always have a change of clothes with me at all times just in case I had to attend a party with a dress code or walk the red carpet in a hurry. I was a newly 21 year old from Michigan surrounded by the world's richest and most elite so I had to be on my A game at all times or I would stick out like a sore thumb... more than I already did.

A majority of time during the day was spent planning out every detail of the company's parties as well as finding ways to promote them. This specifically entailed working online in the press room and networking in the international pavilions and the marketplace.

When not working on party planning jobs, we were able to attend some events with our producer which always a surprise and we pretty much had to be ready for anything. These events ranged from a fashion show at the Ritz Carlton, attending pop-up parties in an abandoned castle, and going to an invite only party thrown by LaToya Jackson.

Our amazing producer was able to hook all of us interns up with press level badges granting us access to basically anywhere we wanting in the festival area. During random points of downtime, I was able to attend four different films (Todos Los Saben, Les Filles du Soliel, Yommedine, and Fahrenheit 451), three of which were in competition, and even attend the post- premier press conference for Spike Lee's BlackkKlansman film.