The Cannes Film Festival starts in about twenty days but tensions are already palpable! After Thierry Frémaux announced that Netflix films would not be presented in Competition this year, the streaming giant reacted by threatening to boycott the Festival. Focus!
Bluff or real threat? Annoyed by the ban on its films to officially compete this year, Netflix threatens not to present the five planned works. And it could hurt since among these works we find in particular The Roma by Alfonso Cuaron (The Sons of Man, Gravity) but also and especially The Other Side of the Wind, an unfinished film by Orson Welles that Netflix has worked to save from oblivion. By working towards the completion of this film, Netflix is sending a strong message to cinema. He recalls that this platform is also and above all there to discover works of all kinds to cinephages. But this threat of boycott may delay the discovery of this relic of the genius Orson Welles (having "just" directed Citizen Kane, which modestly retains its title of best film of all time). And the least we can say is that the pill goes badly.
A source close to the Festival reportedly reacted to this threat with more than acerbic remarks reported by Vanity Fair:
"They use Cannes as a weapon! "
"What are they going to do? The studios no longer finance these films. It's not like filmmakers choose Netflix over a 2,500-screen release. "
Uncomplimentary statements against the platform, even if Martin Scorsese comes to contradict them alone, since Netflix is currently producing its highly anticipated film The Irishman. Anyway, it seems that Netflix has its back to the wall, Thierry Frémaux having been very clear about the films to be nominated in Competition:
"Any film wishing to compete in Competition at Cannes will first have to commit to being distributed in French cinemas."
If this position can be perfectly understood (after all nothing replaces the pleasure of the theater), the problem would be more complex than it seems, because the current French legislation would be problematic for the distribution of Netflix films in theaters. This would be due in particular to the provisions on media chronologies (which many professionals in the trade increasingly refute and which should be reviewed this year).
Who will win this tug-of-war between the Cannes Film Festival and Netflix? Difficult to say, even if it remains unlikely that the organizers will give in to the threats of the streaming giant. However, we should be quickly fixed, since the Official Selection will be unveiled this Thursday, April 12, 2018. In the meantime, discover without further delay the poster of this 71st edition of the Cannes Film Festival !
