Saturday Apr 18, 2026

Cinemas Have an Ads Problem — And Will Cannes Have a Star Problem?

Are cinemas putting audiences off before the film even begins?

This week on Cinema in One Take, Emma Jones and Kaleem Aftab respond to Sony’s Tom Rothman, who has urged cinemas to shorten the bloated pre-show of ads and trailers before films start, and ask whether the pre-cinema experience itself is part of the problem of getting audiences in?

Then it’s to Cannes 2026, where the line up for other sidebars, Director's Fortnight and Critic's Week have been unveiled: can world cinema stars really replace Hollywood at this year's festival, and what does a less “sellable” lineup mean for film buzz and journalists on the ground? Especially when CinemaCon in the USA is generating headlines from Spielberg's Disclosure Day, Nolan's The Odyssey and Toy Story 5 - films that might have been at the festival.

Plus, a lively debate over Christan Petzold's Miroirs No. 3, and Sundance winner The New West, also known as East of Wall, a striking docu-fiction set on an American horse ranch.

Connected to that story - watch the trailer for Riley Keough and Gina Gammell's War Pony