Hoo boy, we’re a week away from the start of the Cannes Film Festival, and there’s already a big controversy brewing between organizers and Netflix, who are bringing Bong Joon-ho’s “Okja” and Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories” to the fest. This morning, Cannes announced that starting next year, films that didn’t have a theatrical release planned for France would not be eligible to screen in Competition, a pointed jab at Netflix, who have run afoul of distributors in the country for playing by their own rules. In France, films that play in cinemas must wait 36 months before appearing on a streaming platform, and Netflix has gotten around this by simply not opening their movies in the country and dropping them straight on their service. However, the streaming service is not taking this news lying down.
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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has aired his thoughts on Facebook, declaring that it’s “the establishment closing ranks against us. See ‘Okja’ on Netflix June 28th. Amazing film that theatre chains want to block us from entering into Cannes film festival competition.” Pretty hot burn, calling Cannes the “establishment.”
But seriously, one wonders how much uglier this will get. Cannes effectively dumping on a distributor before they even get to France is a rare move, and Netflix, at the moment, will pretty much have to grin and bear it if they continue with their plans to debut “Okja” and “The Meyerowitz Stories” at the festival. However, if the back and forth continues, is there a scenario where Netflix pulls their movies this year? It would be a bold move, but one that would make a statement, and allow Netflix to turn the conversation back to the actual films rather than the battle with Cannes, which will inevitably become the focus of the press conferences for both pictures on the Croisette.
Thoughts? Let us know below.