MUMBAI: Putting an end to speculation, Netflix has confirmed that it would pull out of the Cannes Film Festival entirely. The streaming giant won’t bring any film to the esteemed film festival following a rule change. In an interview with Variety, the company’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, spoke about the decision.
Last year, Netflix came to the festival with two movies Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories. French theatre owners did not take it very well and protested the inclusion of these movies as the law in the country requires movies to not appear in home platforms for 36 months after their theatrical release. The rule is contradictory to Netflix’s day-on-date release.
In addition to that, a new rule from this year imposes a ban on any film in the competition without theatrical distribution in France from playing. Though Netflix could screen films out of competition, Sarandos says that doesn’t make sense for the company.
“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,” he said. He also said that the new rule was implicitly about Netflix.
“We loved the festival. We love the experience for our filmmakers and for film lovers. It’s just that the festival has chosen to celebrate distribution rather than the art of cinema,” he added later.
Though Sarandos himself won’t attend the festivals, some employees from the company will be there to acquire films among the bunch that would be there without distribution.
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