Neus Flores
TARRAGONA, SPAIN — On October 16th at 7:00 PM, the Ateneu de Tarragona will open its doors to Cannes Backstage, a powerful new photography exhibition by filmmaker, photographer, communicator and cultural journalist Neus Flores.
This curated expo offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Cannes Film Festival—not from the perspective of stardom and celebrities, but through the lens of someone observing the rhythms of the professional backstage.
This eclectic exhibition features photographs taken by Flores between 2018 and 2025, during her yearly participations in the Cannes Film Festival—not only as a filmmaker, but also as a journalist and observer: “What interests me most is what happens in the shadows,” says Flores. ”It’s where the soul of cinema lives.”
About the Exhibition
“Cannes Backstage” reflects Neus Flores’ multifaceted engagement with cinema—as a filmmaker, photographer, and cultural journalist. Rather than chasing celebrity or spectacle, her lens seeks out the liminal, the transitional, the often unnoticed moments that define the soul of a festival.
“I don’t want to mythologize Cannes—I want to humanize it,” Flores explains. “There’s already plenty of coverage that glorifies the surface. I’m interested in what happens just beneath that.”
From the corridors of the Palais des Festivals to the makeshift rooftop studios and narrow passageways behind press booths, each image functions like a still from a larger, unseen film. With a filmmaker’s instinct for narrative and a journalist’s attention to truth, Flores composes her subjects in a way that captures not just a face or a gesture, but an atmosphere—a swing between the personal and the performative.
What sets Cannes Backstage apart is its emotional pacing. The exhibition does not present isolated snapshots but rather a coherent visual essay that unfolds gradually, much like a short film. The mood shifts from excitement to solitude, from nervous focus to quiet relief. The sequencing of the images is deliberate: we are not simply shown random events; we are invited to feel them. Each photograph is positioned as a narrative beat—part of a broader road that reflects the lived tempo of the festival from within.
Many of the subjects in the exhibition are not marquee names, but just sound editors, journalists, or Cannes volunteers—those whose labor sustains the machinery of the industry but who rarely feature in its public image. Flores brings them to the fore, not as footnotes but as protagonists in their own right.
“These people are essential to cinema’s ecosystem,” she says. “And Cannes isn’t just a red carpet—it’s an incredible human engine. Cannes Backstage is my attempt to honor that engine and the real people and places that keep it moving.”
The geography of the festival plays a crucial role in the visual language of Cannes Backstage. Flores’ photographs traverse a range of spaces rarely highlighted in official coverage. Some images are taken just steps away from the red carpet, but feel worlds apart—shielded from the public eye by a static and selective wall.
The #juxtaposition of glamour and grit creates a textured portrait of Cannes—not just as a postcard, but as a working and breathing ecosystem with its own backstage pulse, instead.
More Than a Filmmaker: A Multidisciplinary Voice
A graduate of the New York Film Academy in 2020, Neus Flores is a film director best known for her award-winning short films Ride (2018), Sub Ads (2020), and Picasso23 (2023), which have been officially selected at prestigious international festivals including Clermont-Ferrand (France), Incorto (Mexico), Subtravelling Film Fest (Barcelona and Korea), Paris Lady Moviemakers Festival (France), Edimburgh Film Awards (UK), Madrid Arthouse Film Festival (Spain), Stockholm Short Festival (Sweden) and Nashville Independent Filmmakers Festival (USA). Currently, she is in post-production of her first feature-length documentary BARNABANDS—a film about Barcelona’s independent music scene, set for release this year (watch trailer here).
Beyond her film work, Flores has strongly established and positioned herself as a cultural journalist since 2005, publishing for online magazines in Spain (Nuvol.com and Makma.net), as well as for international online news (Washington Morning. com) and as a radio host for The English Radio section of the Catalan radio station RCE.cat. Since 2019, she has been the host and director of her #CultInClub RCE radio program—broadcasting live each year from Cannes at the Radio France international radio #booth within the Marché du Film (Cannes Film Market).
Through interviews, roundtables, and cultural commentary, she brings listeners inside the #heartbeat of the film industry during one of the most important festivals in global cinema. “The microphone gives me another way to tell stories,” Flores explains. “While my photographs capture moments in silence, radio gives those stories a #voice. At Cannes, I report directly from the film market floor, interviewing emerging filmmakers, critics, producers, distributors, and artists who may not walk the red carpet, but who are relentlessly shaping cinema’s future by working hard every day behind the scenes.”
Her dual presence—both as documentarian and participant in the festival—has allowed her to develop a deeply #informed, human-centered perspective on the #industry around it.
Cultural Practice Beyond Cinema
Neus Flores is also known as a cultural #professor, #mentor, #speaker, and #artist manager. She has organized creative #webinars, led arts #programs and #workshops, and collaborated with community centers across Europe. In a glance, she is an intercultural #communicator who is managing the cultural arena in a great variety of formats, using her very own personal ways of approaching a wide range of professional fields. This #multidisciplinary approach undoubtedly informs her art, giving texture, #relevance, and depth to her projects.
“Cannes Backstage” is not just a visual exhibition—it’s a sensory document, merging photography, cinema, and journalism into a story of what the public rarely sees. As Flores likes to put it: “Sometimes, the most cinematic moments happen in complete silence. That’s what I try to capture—with my lens, my voice, and my #curiosity.”
Event Information
📍 Venue: Ateneu de Tarragona, c/Sant Magí 2 – Tarragona, Spain
🗓 Opening: October 16, 2025 – 7:00 PM
🖼 Exhibition: Cannes Backstage – Professional behind-the-scenes photography from the Cannes Film Festival by Neus Flores (2018–2025)
Program
Admission: 19h for VIP invitation + Professional accreditation + Guest list
19:15h Free attendance and open to all ages public.
19:30h Artist talk with Neus Flores, a guided tour through the photographs
19:45h Open Q&A session for visitors and media.
20:00h Recap and doors closing.
Contact & Press Inquiries
Neus Flores is available for interviews, panels, and collaborations.
🎞 Professional profile: IMDb Neus Flores // Catalan Films Neus Flores // Dones Visuals – Neus Flores
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