Since he took hold of the reins at the Marche de Cannes four years ago Jerome Paillard has gradually transformed the organisation into a lean, mean, user-friendly publicity machine.

"Even if there was no Marché de Cannes, the Cannes market would still exist," he says. "I make no pretence that we are the market: the market consists of the people who come here to do business. Everyone comes to Cannes for different reasons: there's the Festival side, which has its own requirements; and, at the same time - even if this is sometimes more of an excuse than anything else - there is the business side. We're here to help people with that."

Paillard reels off the various achievements of his four-year tenure, above all the proliferation of parallel events, especially this year's MITIC (Marché International De Technique Et D'Innovation Du Cinéma), designed to bring into town those active in areas of cinema other than the buying and selling of films. Next year will see a similar link-up between the worlds of cinema and book publishing).

He has also slipped a name change by us all this year and the event is no longer called MIF - short for Marché International du Film. That, he admits, is still what the legal entity under which the event trades is called. "But no one knew what MIF meant: they either mixed it up with MIFED or they just didn't know what it was. So now we're just called the Marché de Cannes or the Cannes Market.

"Another big innovation has been the internet site, a source of data which is available throughout the year. That and the new Riviera building, in which 80% of the available space has already been let, and which will see a number of major companies - Le Studio Canal+, Lions Gate, Film Four - come under our umbrella for the first time. "

"The big advantages of the new building will be that it will be an attractive working space, with high ceilings, lots of light and terraces onto the sea. Plus everyone will be together in the same place."

There will also be eight state-of-the-art screening rooms seating around 70 people each, replacing the cramped temporary locations currently operating in the bowels of the Palais Des Festivals.

The big question is how long Paillard himself will rule over the Riviera. He politely dodges a direct question about this, but does concede that "up to now, my life has tended to go in six-year cycles".

Indeed, in keeping with the wide variety of backgrounds from which those who work for Cannes itself seem to come, Paillard studied maths and music, spending the first six-year cycle of his life as a professional musician (his instrument, should you be curious, is the oboe). From there, he moved into music publishing, preparing a complete edition of the works of Debussy.

This eventually brought him into contact with producer Toscan du Plantier, who hired him to manage Erato. At the same time, he studied for a CPA - the French equivalent of an MBA. After that, it was the Market.

Paillard spends the time between the annual Cannes markets travelling and learning from the successes and mistakes of the previous years. "What we do when it finishes," he says, "is we all take five days off, then we get together in Paris for a brainstorming session. It's fantastically useful, because we are just far enough away from it to have a sense of perspective, but everything is still fresh in our minds.

"It's the side of the whole Marché operation which I enjoy the most and which is the most unique: I find myself referring to my notes on the previous year's brainstorming again and again throughout the year."