Netflix has been making headlines the last couple weeks, but not because of a new season of “Stranger Things” or the latest spending spree. No, they’re making headlines because of their seemingly never-ending war with the Cannes Film Festival. Well, now that the dust has settled and Cannes has announced their Netflix-free lineup, the streaming service has one more message they’d like to put out there, and this time its aimed at their investors.
“We regret our films not being able to compete at this year’s Cannes Film Festival,” said a letter to shareholders (via ScreenDaily). “The festival adopted a new rule that means if a film is in competition at Cannes, it can not be watched on Netflix in France for the following three years. We would never want to do that to our French members.”
“We will continue to celebrate our films and filmmakers at other festivals around the world but unfortunately we will have to sit out Cannes for now so that our growing French membership can continue to enjoy our original films.”
READ MORE: Cannes Artistic Director Explains Why Netflix Films Are Banned From Competition
While this is far from an apology, this is the closest we’ve heard from Netflix to actual remorse for not working out a deal with Cannes. As mentioned, the sticking point to the discussion is the rule about French distribution, where every Cannes film is required to have a French theatrical showing, which would mean, by law, Netflix wouldn’t be able to stream their film until 3 years later. And obviously, in Netflix’s eyes, this is ludicrous.
But no matter what Netflix thinks about the law, it’s clear they really want their films at Cannes. The prestigious film festival is where the streaming service would love to showcase their films like they did last year. However, they’re just choosing not to.
The tone of the investors’ call wasn’t all remorseful. Netflix was quick to celebrate a record quarter for the company, which saw an increase in membership by almost 8 million subscribers. And almost 6 million of those came from international territories (much like France…), which are quickly adopting the streaming service.
Netflix now counts 125 million subscribers, with only 57 million coming from the US, to their service, which is a very impressive milestone for the company. These numbers just add more fuel to their fire and will be used to show exactly why they believe Cannes is falling behind in the times.