When Pedro Almodóvar’s philosophical drama next door room It had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 2, making headlines in major media people arrive independent The standing ovation after the screening lasted 17.5 minutes, the longest ever at the gathering.
Of course, such an enthusiastic response means Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton’s film is bound to win an Oscar in 2025, right?
Not so fast.
While attendees of European film festivals such as Cannes and Venice have in recent years engaged in a social media-driven campaign to time and breathlessly report applause times, their real-world significance has always seemed… less clear.
so THR Set out to find out. We’ve tallied up some of the biggest (and not-so-big) applause in recent years. Our findings are illuminating.
It turns out that the correlation becomes very shaky when comparing the tastes of enthusiastic festival crowds to thousands of Academy voters. But there are some patterns.
Shortened applause—anything 10 minutes or less—can produce different results. Sometimes a movie can go all the way to win Best Picture, e.g. The Shape of Water In 2018, after a seven-minute “sesh” of applause, it did just that. Sometimes a movie never even gets beyond its starting point (sorry, interstellar exploration).
Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, it’s surprising that a film that gets a sustained rapturous ovation (14 minutes or more) almost never succeeds in translating that excitement into an Oscar nomination. In fact, all this applause is often the result of more external variables, such as the Cannes audience supporting Michael Moore’s anti-George Bush stance at the premiere of his film. Fahrenheit 9/11 2004.
Best spot to clap? It is located between 11 minutes and 13 minutes. That’s enough time for fans to express genuine appreciation without falling into overt visceral adoration. For example, this is the range that big nominees like Inglourious Basterds, Elvis Presley and best picture winner artist Login. You want your holiday movie to be this length.
THR Using a sample of 25 of the biggest film festival premieres in recent years, we examine the relationship between nominations and films with different average applause lengths.
This story first appeared in the November issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
