Julianne Moore’s latest film The Room Next Door just earned a 17-minute standing ovation at the Venice International Film Festival. I’m not being dramatic, but I think I would rather die than have to smile and clap for 17 minutes. That’s ridiculous!
But what’s all this hype around standing ovations when it comes to film festivals, and do they actually mean anything? Vulture has even created a dedicated Venice International Film Festival Standing-O-Metre where people can see how long audiences clapped for.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice had an average of 3.8 minutes, so does it suck? Or are these audiences made up of pretentious fuckwits who only wanna clap for boring movies? Cowards! Bring back real cinema (I’m talking about shark movies).
Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder’s 3.8 minute standing ovation was actually very respectful. (Image: Getty)
When comparing standing ovation length to Rotten Tomatoes scores (an aggregate of critic reviews), perhaps they’re an actual measure of critical acclaim.
The longest standing ovation yet was a whopping 22 minutes for Pan’s Labyrinth at Cannes Film Festival in 2006. The film has a 95 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is widely loved. In comparison, Megalopolis received an abrupt seven-minute standing ovation at Cannes this year, and has earned just 54 per cent on RT.
All I can say about this clapping nonsense is it sounds bloody awkward. It appears Chris Hemsworth agrees and told The One Show earlier this year it’s about as bad as it sounds.
His film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga had about seven minutes of applause, and he said it “felt like 30 [minutes]”. Sounds like hell, TBH.
“You just clap your hands, after a [while], you’re also clapping yourself, which is even worse. Do I stop?” he asked.
Guillermo Del Toro, who directed Pan’s Labyrinth, noted that the standing ovation he received back in 2006 could have gone for even longer.
“25 minutes is the commute to my office. It’s hard to describe what it is, to go that long, because the first three, four minutes, you’re bathed in a sort of realm and acceptance and joy. Ten minutes in, you don’t know what to do,” he told GQ in 2023.
“It went for the full 22 minutes. And it was only when they opened the door of the Palais to let people out, that it started subsiding.”
So, what does a 22-minute standing ovation feel like? Well… apparently, it’s simple. “It felt like 22 minutes. There was no way you didn’t notice,” Del Toro said.
Are standing ovations the new star rating?
Screen Daily reported that the sales team for Motel Destino used the fact the film received a 14-minute standing ovation in its promo materials. So are we now using this as an actual measurement?
It’s a bit of a weird decision, because there are so many elements that affect how long a standing ovation goes for. Heck, even different publications report the length of time differently — because there’s no set rules as to when you should begin timing.
Then, you have cast members or directors encouraging applause by hyping up the crowd or giving a lil’ speech. During Nicolas Cage’s six-minute standing ovation at Cannes earlier this year, he grabbed the microphone and roared one of his iconic lines in French. I’ll be honest, Nic Cage constantly yelling “mangez le rat!” would possibly hook me into participating in this bonkers tradition.
Film editor and critic for The Globe and Mail, Barry Hertz, told Screen Daily ovations are “in danger of becoming the new star rating system”.
“Instead of a film getting four stars, it got a ‘10-minute standing ovation’. Marketing departments haven’t quite reached the point of sticking ‘20-minute standing ovation’ to the top of a poster. But it’s getting there,” he said.
On the other hand, a PR boss from LA is sick of the whole standing ovation nonsense.
“The whole thing has jumped the shark, and it’s become a caricature of itself… everybody in the industry gets the joke — even the buyers — and nobody is taking it seriously,” the PR specialist said.
Due to the lack of consistency in timing a standing ovation, he noted that “the credibility [is taken] out of it”.
The whole standing ovation nonsense sounds like another way for Hollywood types to stroke their egos. I don’t care that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice only got a 3.8 minute standing ovation, I fully believe it’s going to be amazing and I WILL be watching.
Feature Image: Getty
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