The film that earned a whopping 22-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival in 2006

Film festivals are often where the long-lost art of the standing ovation gets to thrive.

Hollywood heavyweights, writers, producers and directors adore applauding their industry's finest work. Some productions, however, elicit much longer rounds of applause.

Cannes Film Festival is one annual Hollywood event where plenty of standing ovations are almost guaranteed.

READ MORE: Every stunning look spotted at the 76th annual Cannes Film Festival

At the 2023 French festival, Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon received a nine-minute one.

And as the rule goes, the longer the ovation, the more likely this film can dance close to the edges of Oscars territory.

View gallery

'Begged for the job': A-lister's desperate bid for 1999 role

One film has held onto the historical world record of longest standing ovation for 18 years.

In 2006, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and his cast received a whopping 22-minute standing ovation for his movie, Pan's Labyrinth.

To put that into perspective, the Cannes audience clapped for as long as an episode of Friends or Seinfeld.

For the uninitiated, Pan's Labyrinth follows the story of a bookish young girl in 1940s Spain who steps into a world of fantasy and mystery.

It starred a raft of little-known actors and actresses, including Spanish-born Ivana Baquero as the little girl, Ofelia.

The movie premiered at the 58th Cannes Film Festival on the second last day.

In an interview with GQ in 2023, director del Toro spoke about his pleasant surprise at the film's wild and record-breaking reception.

"A lot of people were leaving the festival, and I really was not expecting much," he explained.

He then admitted the applause felt like it dragged on, because – well, it did.

"Twenty-five minutes is the commute to my office. It's hard to describe what it is, to go that long, because the first three, four minutes, you're bathed in a sort of realm of acceptance and joy. Ten minutes in, you don't know what to do,"

del Toro said the applause only ended around the 22-minute mark because the doors to the iconic le Palais theatre opened to let people out.

And how did he celebrate this monumental achievement? He told the publication he celebrated it with an extra cup of coffee while recounting the ovation to friends later in Paris.

The only Cannes film to come close to Pan's Labyrinth's standing ovation record was at the premiere of Fahrenheit 9/11, which elicited a 20-minute applause.

The 2012 film Mud skated close to this record too, with the applause clocking in at 18 minutes.

Pan's Labyrinth also won big at the Oscars that same year, raking in three Academy Awards. 

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.