Fantasia 2025: Occupy Cannes Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Founded in 1974 by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, Troma Entertainment is a colossus of independent cinema. Their production model consists of producing B-movies, especially horror films, that blend a unique comedy style. Troma produced classics like The Toxic Avenger franchise, which defined the style for the upcoming projects from the studio. Kaufman became a central symbol in the defense of indie cinema and an advocate against the monopoly of the major companies in film distribution. Hence, subversive and authorial productions such as Troma’s do not have space in the corporate-controlled environment, where chain theaters control the majority of theaters and tend to not program projects from companies such as theirs.

In Lily Hayes Kaufman’s Occupy Cannes, the documentary follows the company’s journey back to the Marché du Film, which occurs in parallel with the Cannes Film Festival. The film market is where sales agents and distributors negotiate deals to exhibit films worldwide. Troma, and its independent spirit, would create a marketing strategy based on shocking the audience. In 2001, the crew was arrested by the French police for terrorist behavior on the nearby beach, where Mr. Kaufman threw blood on himself, while rolling over in the sand, as a dozen people screamed and threw fake blood on them. As a result, it cost a considerable sum from Kaufman’s bank account to release the detained individuals and settle their legal issues with the French judicial system.

Writer-director Lily Hayes Kaufman mixes footage from past incarnations of the festival, spending most of her time in 2013, when Troma took their Return to Nuke ‘Em High – Volume 1 to the market. A reboot of their series that started in 1986 with Class of Nuke ‘Em High and was followed by two sequels in the early 1990s. Their 2013 effort was a tentative attempt to unite Troma’s older fans and to introduce a new generation of cinephiles to their subversive cinema style. Yet, the director emphasizes through interviews their manifesto against the monopolization of the means of distribution.

Consequently, the film introduces a fascinating juxtaposition of the 2010s state of a grand status festival. Kaufman documents the expensive billboards of major companies around the Croisette’s hotel, such as Warner Bros, Disney, Paramount, among others. Even production companies and sales agents would position their promotion of potential sales titles, seeking distribution deals and funding to initiate their pre-productions. In this sense, the Occupy Cannes movement would advocate against the current necessity of large amounts of capital to promote their projects in markets like the Marché. The distinct aesthetic and trashy visuals of Troma’s films would drive away buyers. Additionally, the film addresses Lloyd Kaufman’s feelings about how the media avoids covering his company’s projects and his anti-conglomerate ideals, and his desire to remain independent. He positions himself as the guardian of indie cinema.

Ultimately, even though the film lacks a better structure to encapsulate Troma’s journey in implementing an outstanding guerrilla marketing campaign, Occupy Cannes is an ode to those who dare to dream of an independent and subversive cinema existing within the pro-conglomerate momentum of film production and distribution.

still courtesy of Troma Entertainment

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Pedro Lima

Brazilian film writer. He is also a producer and executive producer for Zariah Filmes. Member of the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), International Documentary Association (IDA), and Gotham and Media Film Institute.