Sarah Mcintosh, 3rd year student on the BA (Hons) Film Studies course, recently had the opportunity to visit the Cannes Film Festival through her work with the Cambridge Film Festival. Here she reports back on her experience.

I first got involved with the Cambridge Film Festival in 2012, managing to secure a position as Programming Intern. My main task was overseeing the Festival's audience award, but I also helped with general administration such as updating spreadsheets and double-checking copy for the brochure. I also helped to secure finances from the Cultural Attache office of the Estonian Embassy in London to bring an Estonian producer, Mari Kallas, to the UK for the festival. I also hosted my own Q&A with Mari at the Estonian shorts screening.

Working for the festival opened up a larger film-loving community to me in Cambridge and I have since become involved with film reviewing both on local radio, through a show called Bums On Seats, and through writing for the Cambridge Film Festival's official magazine Take One. This year I am working as a paid member of staff for the festival, in a role which involves overseeing a team of knowledgeable film reviewers as they help me whittle down the festival submissions into a short list. Once that is done, I will hand over the Features and Documentaries to the Festival Director and set about programming the shorts.

One of the fabulous perks of this position has been the opportunity to spend 4 days at the Cannes Film Festival. It is huge and at first I was quite overwhelmed. My accreditation was for the Marche du Film, which not only meant that I had access to the business end of things - such as the Documentary Corner, Short Films Corner and International Pavillions - but that I was able to attend screenings of the competing films.

Unfortunately I missed out on viewing both Claire Denis' and Clio Barnard's films but I did get to see James Gray's The Immigrant and Nicholas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives. The Lumiere Cinema is the biggest of all the screens at Cannes, seating approximately 2,000 people. Not only do you need the correct accreditation to enter, but you also need to accumulate enough points and be quick enough to book a ticket. Even this is no guarantee: you must judge how popular you think the film will be and queue accordingly. Many a time, as I was jostled and shoved, I wondered if it were truly worth it.

For me, the glitz of Cannes was a sidenote. It was what made the main street so busy I would end up eating dinner far from the best eateries rather than shuffle and shove my way to the other side of town. It was what made me smile in bafflement at 8 o'clock in the morning when the papparazi's step ladders would be chained to the barriers outside the red carpet for a film that wasn't due to start until half ten that night. It was the sight of a Swarovski crystal-encrusted balaclava on display in a shop window.

Away from the spectacle, Cannes was an overwhelming array of cinema - some amazingly good and some not. Cannes was also heartbreakingly-earnest filmmakers apologetically asking you to consider watching their films. It was 5kg catalogues of choice and limited hours in which to make a decision. It was overwhelming. It was exhausting. It was a steep learning curve but it was also exhilarating, exciting, educating - an experience I will never forget.

If, after the Festival ends in October 2013, I have to take on a 9-5 job outside of the realm of cinema, I will definitely feel a tinge of wistful melancholy but if that is to be then, at least, "I will always have Cannes!"

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