Just last week, we discussed the way that the Venice Film Festival has benefitted from the feud between Netflix and Cannes. As the prestigious French film festival continues its dispute with the streaming service, preventing Netflix from entering films into the competition, Venice has swooped in to snatch those highly-anticipated projects for its own festival.
All seemed to be going according to plan for the Venice Film Festival. That is until the beginnings of a battle between the festival and film exhibitors has surfaced. Now, Venice finds itself in a war that could result in Italy’s festival getting the same treatment as Cannes.
READ MORE: Netflix May Have Lost The Cannes Battle But Got Sweet Revenge In Venice
The crux of the problem is Netflix’s insistence on releasing its films day-and-date with theatrical runs. And apparently, the film at the center of it all is “On My Skin.”
The Italian film is one of six Netflix productions chosen to show at the Venice Film Festival in September. And as with some of the other choices, “On My Skin” will have a small theatrical run in Italy. However, the sticking point is that Netflix will also release the film on its streaming service at the exact time it hits theaters. Needless to say, exhibitors are not pleased.
In a statement released a couple days ago (via Deadline), trade bodies ANEC (National Association of Cinema Exhibitors) and ANEM (National Association of Multiplexed Exhibitors) voiced their displeasure with this turn of events and criticized the Venice Film Festival for being involved.
The trade organizations say that Venice is condoning Netflix’s actions and contributing to issues that are already plaguing theater chains. “This is a very sensitive issue that should be dealt with in agreement with all the operators of the film supply chain, especially in a period of serious crisis for exhibition due to structural problems of the market,” the statement reads.
The organizations go on to say they will “oppose this proposal [day-and-date releasing of big movies] by any means necessary if the issue of shortening windows is disregarded without the approval of Italian Cinema.”
Today, Lucky Red CEO Andrea Occhipinti replied to these exhibitors (again via Deadline). Lucky Red is the distribution company that has worked with “On My Skin,” as well as major films like “Hereditary” and “I, Tonya.”
“Every exhibitor will be free to choose to play or not [play] the film in their theatre,” said Occhipinti. “We are investigating with all of them what’s the best release plan and consequently we will make a decision. The last thing we want is to penalize the relationship between audience and cinema.”
The distributor continues to say that the star of “On My Skin” will be available for Q&A’s at cinemas, as a way to encourage fans to see the film on the big screen.
“We are not ‘escaping into the future’,” continued the executive. “We believe in cinema, in its central role and in its future. During our 30 years in business, we have been always coherent and we [have] proved it with our direct and indirect investments.”
“This is not an imposition, it’s a choice. It’s an opportunity for the audience: the possibility to watch the film on the big screen, too,” the statement continues.
Clearly, this is an ongoing discussion. We’ll have to see if Venice adopts a similar policy to Cannes about streaming films and how that might affect other film festivals in the future.
