The hottest party ticket in Cannes, but you must wear pajamas

The Cannes film festival may be filled with swanky parties, overflowing with champagne and glamour, but there's only one that the A-Listers and the elite can't get into - The PJ Party.

Like the famous steps of the festival, there's a strict dress code and you can't enter without complying. You have to wear pyjamas, a dressing gown or nightwear but lingerie is not acceptable for safety reasons.

To be part of the party, you have to enter a lottery. This year, 1,800 people applied for the 300 tickets available and you don't have to be an accredited member of the industry or press to enter.

Those lucky enough to enter the party find the atmosphere much better than the usual Cannes party fare.

Documentary maker and journalist Vanessa McMahon, who won one of the prestigious golden tickets, said, "We're all kind of let's, like, let go of the foo foo and the look what I'm wearing and just like, let's keep it real. Let's wear PJs."

The party was created by filmmakers Maxim Jago and Dave DeBorde after they got frustrated with the exclusivity of Cannes parties. And now, their party is the hottest ticket in town, according to Vogue magazine.

Jago told Reuters, "We want to feel like we're equal with the people that we're talking to. And you always get that thing where you see somebody wearing really fancy clothes and you're thinking, Yeah, I got mine from a jumble sale, you know, from a thrift store, and it makes you feel lesser. It shouldn't, right?"

He added, "None of that stuff's relevant here. In fact, you've no idea. You could be talking to someone who runs a major studio or a film student. It doesn't matter if you make a genuine human connection with them. It sets you off for the rest of the festival."

According to Jago and DeBorde, Oscar winners have been turned away from the party for both not having a ticket and also not wearing pyjamas. 

"We get a lot of people writing to us in the lead up to the party saying, 'Hi, I represent this up and coming star. They've won these awards and can you let them have a party ticket because they've got social status?' And we say, 'Here's the website for the lottery. We wish them the best of luck with it'," Jago said.

Lottery winner Milena Schwager, a producer from Abu Dhabi, said "You're not judging people by the diamonds or the bags they're wearing or whatever because everybody is kind of on the same level in pyjamas."

Bega Metzner, who had fully embraced this year's additional theme of circus on top of the pyjamas by wearing a wig and a clown nose, told Reuters, "Literally, anyone who got picked on the lottery could be here, so you could be talking to someone who could be making your next movie, you could be talking with someone who wanted to make your next movie."

She added, "You know, anything is possible. It's the cutest, it's the funnest, it's the best."

-Ollie Barth, Rollo Ross/Reuters