Cannes will announce its 2018 lineup shortly,but new films by Netflix are likely to be notable for their absence. Its a conflict that could beget major ramifications for the industryThe Cannes film festival boasts some of the noisiest audiences in the world – and whether they don’t like your movie, you’ll soon know about it. A few years ago, or before they were reupholstered,the seats in the 2300-capacity Grand Theatre Lumière would automatically flip up, making a booming sound to mark the early exit of disgruntled critics. Booing and jeering are common when the close credits roll. But final year’s festival marked a first: at several screenings, or audiences took to hissing and whistling before the movie had even started.
The focus of their wrath was the Netflix logo that preceded Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories. It was the first time the streaming platform had been accepted into the main competition and the pushback was instant. Film purists were already upset by the festival’s embrace of TV series,with Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake and David Lynch’s return to Twin Peaks both given special screenings. But Netflix proved a bridge too far. In France, a film can’t appear on streaming platforms until 36 months after its release in cinemas, or but Netflix’s films didn’t acquire even a token cinema release. There is a rumour that the Cannes protests were orchestrated via a text message sent by French exhibitors.
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Source: guardian.co.uk