Birmingham film educator Corey Craft turns Cannes dream into reality

Corey Craft’s Cannes trip put a Birmingham film worker inside one of the most guarded rooms in world cinema, and it did so with Alabama credentials in hand. Craft teaches creative writing, film studies and new media at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, and he serves as Sidewalk Film Festival’s Lead Features Programmer and co-host of the Sidetalks podcast. In other words, he is already part of the machinery that shapes what Birmingham watches, talks about and celebrates.

That mattered when Craft sought media approval for the Festival de Cannes. The festival reserves press accreditation for authorized media representatives responsible for coverage, and its 2026 event drew more than 4,000 journalists and more than 2,000 media outlets from about 90 countries. Craft’s Sidewalk exhibitor credentials helped get his approval almost immediately, and ASFA and Sidewalk helped fund much of the trip. A few months later, he had booked an Airbnb in Cannes and made the journey to the French Riviera for the 79th Cannes Film Festival, which ran May 12 to 23.

For a movie fan who had followed Cannes in the trade press since his teenage years, the trip was more than a personal milestone. It was a chance to sit in the same festival ecosystem that helps decide what films become conversation pieces, what names break through and what tastes travel. Craft’s experience included a special screening of Pan’s Labyrinth with Guillermo del Toro present, one of those rare Cannes moments that collapse the distance between the audience and the artist. He also singled out Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma as a standout, a useful tip for Birmingham readers looking for new work to track down and discuss.

The trip also reflects how deeply Birmingham’s film community is plugged into a larger circuit. Sidewalk says its annual festival showcases work by more than 250 filmmakers and welcomes about 15,000 film lovers to Birmingham each year. Its Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema, a two-screen independent movie theater in the Pizitz Building in downtown Birmingham’s historic theatre district, extends that ecosystem year-round. Craft’s Cannes access grew out of those local institutions, not outside them.

That is the bigger story behind the French Riviera photos and festival badges. A Birmingham teacher and programmer got to stand at Cannes because Alabama’s indie-film infrastructure gave him the résumé, support and perspective to get there, then bring that experience back to the city that raised his taste. Sidewalk’s next annual festival is set for August 24 to 30 in Downtown Birmingham’s Historic Theatre District, and Craft’s Cannes run makes the local stakes feel even larger.