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Netflix Pulls Out of Cannes Following Rule Change (variety.com)
Netflix and Cannes are breaking up, at least for now. On Wednesday, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos said that the streaming platform won't be sending any films to the prestigious French festival, formally severing the strained relationship between the two power players. The decision was a long time coming, after Cannes established a rule that forbade films without a theatrical distribution plan from its competition. From, a report: In an exclusive interview with Variety, Netflix's chief content officer says that the festival sent a clear message with a new rule that bans any films without theatrical distribution in France from playing in competition. Netflix could screen some of its upcoming movies out of competition, but Sarandos says that doesn't make sense for the streaming service. "We want our films to be on fair ground with every other filmmaker," Sarandos says. "There's a risk in us going in this way and having our films and filmmakers treated disrespectfully at the festival. They've set the tone. I don't think it would be good for us to be there."
Netflix made a big splash at the prestigious film festival last year with two movies that showed in competition: Bong Joon-ho's "Okja" and Noah Baumbach's "The Meyerowitz Stories." But after the 2017 announcement, French theaters owners and unions protested the inclusion of these films to Thierry Fremaux, the artistic director of Cannes. Netflix was amenable to having their movies play on big screens in France, but a law in the country requires movies to not appear in home platforms for 36 months after their theatrical release.
Netflix made a big splash at the prestigious film festival last year with two movies that showed in competition: Bong Joon-ho's "Okja" and Noah Baumbach's "The Meyerowitz Stories." But after the 2017 announcement, French theaters owners and unions protested the inclusion of these films to Thierry Fremaux, the artistic director of Cannes. Netflix was amenable to having their movies play on big screens in France, but a law in the country requires movies to not appear in home platforms for 36 months after their theatrical release.
If things like this preclude Netflix from attending places like Cannes, it only makes sense for Netflix (and every other non-traditional studio) to get together and build their own awards festival. It's not like Netflix is going away anytime soon, so this is a loss for Cannes.
Of course there'll be the obligatory Blackjack and Hookers.
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France is the land of protectionism, and has been for the last ~250 years. They have their own ideas about what their culture should forcibly be that is highly resistant to change at best, highly xenophobic in the middle, and forcibly destroying other cultures within its own country (i.e. Basque) at worst. This is probably also part of the culture war that France has been waging against the US in vain for the past decade.
French culture is the Eric Cartman of all of the world's cultures.
Cannes has a big market. Hundreds of movies are sold globally in Cannes, at the same time many producers find funding for their big budget and indie films. Netflix buys movies for a few dollars and produce a mere handful of movies every year. Cannes is still a very important platform for the movie business.
Netflix has no space in this old world. They simply put online any movie and people may decide to watch it or not. Meanwhile everyone else has to find distribution and pay for advertising.
No, they'd have to release the movies involved in French theatres (okay), but then (according to the law) wait 3 years before offering it to their French subscribers? Obviously not happening.
Or they could show the movies at Cannes, but not have 'em compete. Why not compete alongside the other movies shown there? Not fair (at least in Netflix' opinion, and I would agree).
Remaining option: pull out all together. Which seems quite a reasonable choice given the above.
"Netflix Pulls Out of Cannes"
So this year the Netflix "big splash" will occur somewhere else.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
They're not in the film business anymore than Hallmark is.
There's a huge difference between creating films for the big screen and just pumping out content for your own TV station.
If you want to be a film company then release to theaters.
Not quite, I think TV Films are pure lowest common denominator, they're more about holding the Network audience than pulling in new people. Make 'em cheap and don't alienate people is the model.
Netflix is allowed to be more daring, their size gives them a bigger budget, and their audience has a constant demand for adequate content.
I think the better analogy is direct to video. You can chase a niche audience and drop a moderate budget if you push it, but you'll never get the revenue stream to justify a blockbuster. They need to be good enough to draw an audience, but not so good as to justify a night out.
That and they sometimes get the big budget films that don't quite turn out.
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ts not just Cannes, the Oscars also has rules requiring a theatrical release.
Unlike the Cannes festival, which requires a release in France, the Academy Awards require a release in Los Angeles in the USA. Unlike France, the USA lacks national regulation of motion picture release windows. This means after a movie completes its 7-day run in LA, it can go straight to Netflix with no mandatory 36-month waiting period.
"[A] law in the country requires movies to not appear in home platforms for 36 months after their theatrical release" - customers want it now, not later, and they will probably get it now, or not at all. This kind of law ensures jobs for lawyers, though, I guess...
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They're not in the film business anymore than Hallmark is.
There's a huge difference between creating films for the big screen and just pumping out content for your own TV station.
If you want to be a film company then release to theatres.
"Film : a story or event recorded by a camera as a set of moving images and shown in a cinema or on television."
They are most definitely in the film business, what they are not is in the theatre business. really they should rename the festival to the Cannes Theatre release film festival.
It is not to help viewers, it is to help theaters. In their mind, if the movie is available to quickly after theater release, people will just wait for the digital release, and not pay an overpriced cinema ticket (easily 15€ per person when 3D) They had the sale rules with VHS/DVD,etc albeit much shorter (I think 6 months, reduced now to 3, not sure) The French love stupid rules like that... In the same way, you cannot broadcast movies on tv channels on friday and saturday nights, so that people would go out instead.
More than a few years. Even the highest estimates only place the Muslim population of France at about 15% by 2050.
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