Talented filmmakers flock to the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France each year, hoping their masterpiece wins the covered Palme d’Or prize. But elsewhere at the festival, movies are bought and sold and distribution deals made in the most un-artistic-like fashion.

“There are movies here and people need to see them and there has to be some sort of facility to get that to happen and get these movies in theaters all over the world. And this is the number one place to do that,” says Wesley Morris, film critic at Grantland.

Morris says the festival this year has felt tame compared to years past. More of his coverage and film reviews from the festival are posted online at Grantland.