What to Do at the Cannes Film Festival

Instead, try for a dinner reservation at nearby Le Baoli, where you'll dine on light pan-Asian cuisine and be able to hang around late for the DJ dance club where Dolce & Gabbana has held their annual parties in previous years.

The Best Parties and Nightlife

During the Film Festival some of Paris' and St. Tropez's top nightclubs set up special outposts along La Croisette to bring the best of French nightlife to Cannes. Start out near Palm Beach Casino and head into VIP Room, a St. Tropez dance institution of hip-hop anthems and glitterati offers a nightly VIP disco for festivalgoers.

Nearby Le Baron Rouge offers a another beachside dance pad for Paris funk and groove -- perfect for catching the evening fireworks show before popping your own champagne bottle.

If all doors seem to be closing in your face, find your home at Nikki Beach Cannes.

Located along the beachfront of the new Sofitel's Palais Stephanie, formerly the Naga Hilton, the infamous Miami-born series of beach clubs launches its annual Cannes outpost.

As with most Nikki events a pretty face or ultra-chic outfit will usually get you through the door. Everyone else may want to inquire about VIP memberships ($5,000 and up) for priority access to their worldwide clubs in places like New York, Miami and St. Bart's.

As much as we would like to deny it, the best parties in Cannes are ultimately the private bashes not everyone is privy getting into.

Be selective.

Large studio parties tend to be the most boring, with buffet-style feeding frenzies that attract hordes of Hollywood suits and people who probably don't need a free meal. Agency parties by Endeavor or CAA are better, as agents are usually even wilder than their celebrity clientele.

But the ultimate fetes will be the annual Vanity Fair party and that ultra-swanky bash on Paul Allen's Octopus that yields so many celebrity run-ins with former flames, future exes -- and stories that define Cannes year after year.