Why the success of mega-blockbusters is relevant at the artsy Cannes Film Festival

Hotels along the seaside throughway will be festooned with posters for upcoming blockbusters, a few of which are actually playing in the festival this year: "Mad Max: Fury Road," the fourth installment of the post-apocalyptic epic, will have its premiere here this week, as will Disney's "Inside Out." Meanwhile, the core competency of the festival — the celebration and often unapologetic worship of auteurs — can be found in the competition lineup, which this year includes films by Todd Haynes ("Carol"), Gus Van Sant ("The Sea of Trees"), Joachim Trier ("Louder Than Bombs") and Paolo Sorrentino ("Youth").

At first glance, these polarities of the movie business — high-minded art and box-office-driven commerce — would seem to be contradictions at Cannes, which functions both as a festival and a market. A closer look, though, suggests that such distinctions might be too facile. "Fury Road," after all, was written and directed by no less an auteur than visionary writer-director George Miller, just as Pixar, the production company for "Inside Out," has evinced as singular and sophisticated a house style as the most director-driven atelier.

Woody Allen, who is bringing his college-campus mystery "Irrational Man" for a special screening this year, had his biggest commercial success with "Midnight in Paris," which premiered at Cannes in 2011. Meanwhile, the sometimes vulgar publicity stunts that give red-carpet allure a slightly seedy edge, illuminate the sometimes inconvenient fact that, as go Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, so go the likes of such indie stalwarts as Alexander Payne, Mike Leigh and the Coen brothers — the latter of whom are heading the jury this year.

As Hollywood enters the summer season, the stakes are particularly high: After a disastrous 2014, during which box office receipts and attendance took vertiginous dips, the studios are looking for a dramatic bounce-back — which looks assured with the success of such 2015 films as "American Sniper," "Cinderella," "Fifty Shades of Grey," "Furious 7" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron." When the big studios do well, it can have a knock-on effect with their boutique divisions, which include Fox Searchlight (the specialty arm of 20th Century Fox) and Sony Pictures Classics (Sony Entertainment).

"I'm happy when Sony's movies do well," says Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Classics. But his interest in the fortunes of big tent poles stops at the home studio door. "We are looking to hit the alternative audience that doesn't want to see those movies. Our only concern in looking at those movies is when one might steal our specialty audience, which doesn't seem to be the case this year." (Sony Classics will be releasing "Saint Laurent," about the storied French designer, this week, and "Irrational Man" later this summer.)

Albert Berger, a producer on "Louder Than Bombs," admits that "although I don't necessarily go to see 'The Avengers' and movies like that, in fact I do hope they do well, because it feels a little bit like you need those films to do well in order to support the rest of us." Having worked extensively with Fox Searchlight in the past, he says, "I don't think there's any doubt that you want your parent division to succeed. It allows for more revenue across the board. A lot of these places expect that the main division is where money gets made, and the art house is where they focus on prestige and luring filmmakers into the fold. You need one to be happy in order to justify the other."

Although the Sundance and Berlin film festivals have transpired — as well as highly respected second-tier showcases such as South by Southwest and Tribeca — Cannes has come to signify the beginning of the movie season for the kinds of movies that open in the fall and often wind up in the awards race. (The critic Richard Corliss, who died last month, called Cannes "the start of the liturgical year" for filmmakers, writers and programmers and other who make the pilgrimage to the Riviera every May.)

But Cannes' position as kingmaker has been, if not threatened, then at least democratized in recent years: In 2013, neither "Inside Llewyn Davis" nor "All Is Lost," both Cannes premieres, made it to the finish line — although "Nebraska" did. Last year, no Cannes movies were nominated for a best picture Oscar, although Bennett Miller received a nod for best director for "Foxcatcher." Other contenders emerged from Sundance, Berlin, Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York.

Cannes also finds itself trying to adapt to the rapid onset of changing technologies, both in and out of the theater: Festival director Thierry Fremaux has banned celebrities and their posses from taking selfies before their big premieres this year, calling the ritual "ridiculous and grotesque." Still, Fremaux loves a star-studded red carpet as much as the next showman, even when that avidity doesn't necessarily dovetail with Cannes' role as arbiter of cinematic taste: Last year's opening-night film — the widely derided "Grace of Monaco," starring Nicole Kidman — will make its long-awaited debut this month, not in theaters, but on the Lifetime cable network.

John Sloss, the Cinetic Media president who represents such directors as Richard Linklater, Justin Lin and Todd Haynes, will attend Cannes as he usually does — as a buyer, seller, manager, producer and attorney. "I'm in the auteur business," he says. "I go where they go." And where they're going, he notes, is no longer just into theaters but also into episodic long-form television and streaming and on-demand platforms. "It's the Wild West out there, and you know who benefits? The creator. I've never seen a more dynamic time since I've been in this business. It's elastic from top to bottom."

For all the transformations that Cannes has been forced to navigate, there is little question that it still matters: A crush of filmmakers and their representatives will be flooding the basement floors under the elegant Grand Palais this week, trying desperately to attain financing for their projects, or sell movies they've already made. (Some hot titles, according to a recent issue of the Hollywood Reporter, include films starring Tom Hanks ("A Hologram for the King"); Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Guy Pearce ("Genius"); and Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal ("Nocturnal Animals").

Berger and his partners may well wind up among the deal-makers: "Louder Than Bombs," starring Jesse Eisenberg, Amy Ryan and Gabriel Byrne, had not yet been acquired by a U.S. distributor as of this writing. Berger, who also co-produced "Nebraska," hopes to repeat the success of that film, which emerged from Cannes in 2013 with an award for lead actor Bruce Dern and the promising beginnings of Oscar chatter.

Aside from that, says Berger, is Cannes' enduring importance in establishing a film's profile internationally, a role that he learned first-hand with his involvement in a co-production between American, Danish, Norwegian and French companies. His Norwegian partners, he says, are particularly thrilled to be bringing "Louder Than Bombs" to France this month.