Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said today the streaming giant will not send its films to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival next month since its is barred from the competition.
While he did not mention any Netflix titles by name, Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind was to have been shown as an Official Selection Special Screening, outside of the competition.
In an exclusive interview with Variety, Sarandos said that the festival sent a clear message with a new rule that bans films without French theatrical distribution from the competition. Netflix could show all of its offerings out of competition, but Sarandos dismissed that idea.
“We want our films to be on fair ground with every other filmmaker,” Sarandos told the trade paper. “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.”
In recent weeks, Cannes director Thierry Frémaux has publicly complained about Netflix’s “intransigence.”
“The people from Netflix loved the red carpet and would love to present us their other films,” Fremaux told Le Film Français. “But they understood that their intransigence about the proper format now clashes with ours.”
However, as recently as last Saturday, Frémaux told IndieWire that Cannes was still negotiating with Netflix. “We’re still talking,” he said. “They are still welcome.”
Five Netflix films were intended for Cannes, according to Vanity Fair. They were The Other Side of the Wind, Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, Paul Greengrass’ Norway, Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark, and Morgan Neville’s Welles documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.
Netflix had two movies in competition last year at Cannes: Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories. But after the 2017 festival, French theaters owners and unions protested the inclusion of Netflix films at Cannes.
Netflix was open to having its movies play theatrically in France, but a law in the country requires movies to not appear on video-on-demand platforms like Netflix for 36 months after their theatrical release.
“Under those rules, we could not release our films day-and-date to the world like we’ve released nearly 100 films over the last couples of years,” Sarandos told Variety. “And if we did that, we’d have to hold back that film from French subscribers for three years under French law.”
Prior Sarandos’ announcement, The Other Side of the Wind producer Frank Marshall said the legendary Welles movie would be “collateral damage” if Netflix opted not to go to Cannes.
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