For some, the festival’s standing ovation and reinforcement of the star response is a source of ridiculous laughter. Was it 12 or 13 minutes? Has anyone cried? Did they hug someone? That’s important, and importantly, will this lead to success at the box office?
Now this ock haha has gone around and is back on the screen.
“Ovation” – a new short film written and performed by Luke Burnett – is described as “an actor’s journey through an endless standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival.”
“Ovation,” which never focuses on Barnett’s face, filmed in one consecutive take on camera, shows the rise of the stars from the actor’s seat to wild applause, running a range of emotion between a five-minute continuous hoop and cheer. Humble approval, teary gratitude, tired annoyance, intense frustration… it’s all (and slowly gets worse). It ends with a hilariously sharp jab in the state of the film industry.
“Short was inspired by seeing Joaquin Phoenix in the ‘Eddington’ oval at Cannes,” Burnett said. “You can say that it affected him and meant a lot… for about 45 seconds. I’m guessing that his soul died slowly and unpleasantly.
Burnett, who recently featured in “Sunfish (& Other Stories),” which premiered at Sundance this year, involving a recurring role in AMC’s “Dark Wind,” came up with the idea. Short was then directed by Norm Kroll, and the two met in 2026 after casting Barnett on “Teacher’s Pet.”
Filmed over two hours, “Ovation” budgets only $50, with a crew of two primarily (Kroll and DP Andy Chinn) and a friend of the actor who is happy to help out at the very end.
“Ovation” follows Burnett’s previous short film, The Crossing Over Express, which he wrote, starred, and co-directed with Tanner Thomason. The film went viral late last year, and a version of its current length is in development. Barnett’s manager blows up a short, inspired by the text he received from unknown numbers in a video of his mother, who died when he was 17 years old – around town.
Using unconventional DIY tactics, Kroll has written and directed dozens of short and feature films, and is hosting the film-making podcast, Show Don’t Tell.
Barnett is now on Tim McGraw’s Down Home, the film “Epilogue” with Todd Garner’s Broken Road (produced by Kate Siegel, Courtney Petrakis, Brittney McDade and produced by Mike Flanagan, and launched on AFM. He repeats Apple TV+’s “For All Humanity,” and then appears in “Dark Winds.”
