Why you should care about Cannes By Agnes Poirier, for CNN

(CNN) -- The Cannes Film festival, which kicked off Wednesday on the French Riviera, is an Olympics of cinema, where endurance matters as much as victory to the 30,000 industry insiders who attend each year. But today Cannes jostles in the crowded film industry schedules with other A-list events: Toronto (and Venice) act as Fall launchpads for the following year's awards season, while Sundance is at the vanguard of independent cinema and new talent. Meanwhile the Oscars are considered by many as the supreme accolade of the movie business. The festival, which this year celebrates its 67th edition, stands firmly apart -- and, some would argue, above -- the rest of the crowd. For Cannes is to cinema what the motto "liberte, egalite, fraternite" ("liberty, egality, fraternity") is to France: an aspiration, an ideal, an inclusive forum for all talents, old and new, coming from all over the world, and motivated by one common love: films. Without prejudices. For directors and actors, success at Cannes is the Nobel Prize that they secretly covet. And for the 2,500 or so film critics -- who for 12 days start watching their first film at 8am and their last one just after midnight -- it is the most frantic and rewarding time, when masterpieces are seen for the first time and talents speak freely. CNN