Madonna's cinematic revenge: the studio sets stage for a cannes oration roast
The film industry’s obsession with extended applause continues to baffle, but The Studio is reportedly aiming to weaponize it. Forget subtle commentary; this season’s installment promises a full-frontal takedown of the festival circuit’s penchant for protracted standing ovations.
A venice vendetta brewing
Apple has spent ten plus years as a movie journalist and I still haven’t attended the most prestigious film festivals, like Cannes or Venice. Much as I relish the idea of hanging around Hollywood muckety mucks by the French Riviera, participating in its notoriously long standing ovations makes me want to never get on the plane at all. The hell’s the point? We obviously should share gestures of appreciation when we see good work. But standing and clapping for the length of a Fortnite match is industry navel-gazing and ego-stroking at its most extreme—an empty exercise that serves no good beyond artificial pre-release buzz. Sometimes unwarranted buzz at that. (See: Joker: Folie à Deux and its 11-minute applause at Venice in 2024.)
Variety reports that pop music legend Madonna is shooting scenes for the highly-anticipated season 2 of The Studio. The word around town is that the show is taking aim at Madonna’s own recent attempts to direct her biopic. In 2021, Universal was set to make Madonna’s movie with Julia Garner portraying the Material Girl, until the project fell through in 2023. Variety reports that in the next season of The Studio, the fictional Continental Studios produces Madonna’s film and brings it to Venice. (Both Madonna and Garner will play themselves.)
Sources close to the series tell us a significant portion of Madonna’s two-episode arc will be dedicated to skewering the absurd lengths of these festival celebrations – specifically, the Cannes and Venice extravaganzas. It’s a deliberate provocation, a meta-commentary on a practice that feels increasingly detached from genuine artistic merit. And, frankly, The Studio has a track record of pulling this kind of audacious, inside-baseball gag.
Variety details that the back half of Madonna’s episodes will focus on the all-important debate around journalists timing festival standing ovations to provide a sense of how films will play in the wider world. Trust us—it’s a whole thing.
Adding fuel to the fire, reports indicate creator Seth Rogen was spotted at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, meticulously documenting the post-screening applause. ScreenDaily even captured images of him actively filming these extended reactions. He wasn’t just observing; he was cataloging the spectacle, seemingly with a particular eye towards mocking its excesses.
The situation is uniquely complex. No one outside of The Studio seems to have a firm grasp on the narrative’s direction. But, let’s be clear: this feels less like a coincidence and more like a calculated move to expose the performative nature of critical acclaim. And I, for one, am genuinely excited to see how they execute this particular brand of cinematic schadenfreude. They’ll probably be relieved to not hear any more clapping.