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posted by mrpg on Saturday May 13 2017, @06:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the first-the-talkies-now-the-onlinies dept.

Official press release

The Cannes Film Festival is taking a stand against Netflix. Responding to a rumor that the streaming service's Okja, directed by Bong Joon Ho, and The Meyerowitz Stories, directed by Noah Baumbach, would be excluded from awards consideration after being included in the Competition lineup, the festival released a statement clarifying and adjusting its positioning going forward. The short version: From now on, if you want to compete at Cannes, your movie had better be released in French movie theaters—not just online.

There has long been a point of tension between Cannes and Netflix, to the extent where the inclusion of Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories came as a bit of a surprise. Netflix films had previously been snubbed and festival officials had advocated for "discouraging" the streaming service's online-first approach to release. The two movies included in Cannes' lineup this year are slated for theatrical bows stateside, but according to the festival's official statement, "no agreement has been reached" to get the moves into French cinemas and the effort to reach one was made "in vain." However, the statement does clarify that this rule goes into effect next year, so Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories will remain in competition and eligible for the Palme d'Or.

Seems the Cannes Film Festival is less about film and more about an outdated business model.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Saturday May 13 2017, @07:12AM (7 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday May 13 2017, @07:12AM (#509044) Journal

    Maybe I really am out of touch.

    If you are European, you are definitely out of touch. If you are American, it's probably just the typical American ignorance about the rest of the world.

    Do you think one single person is going to drop NetFlix because some shitty film didn't get in a shitty film festival?

    You seem to be quite fond of the term "shitty". Maybe because it somehow relates to your own properties? ;-)

    On a more serious note: Someone who already has Netflix certainly won't cancel his subscription. But someone who has not a Netflix subscription might have considered getting one if Netflix films had been nominated (or even won) in Cannes. This is especially true in France, but also in the rest of Europe.

    I bet somewhere there was a NetFlix CEO rolling around on the ground laughing like Porky Pig when he heard about this Cannes Film Festival robbing NetFlix of their gold by putting a clothyard shaft through their wishbone.

    And I'm pretty sure you'll lose that bet. Netflix knows quite well that Europe is a big market.

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    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday May 13 2017, @07:21AM (1 child)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday May 13 2017, @07:21AM (#509046) Homepage

    Huh. So there are some fights the French don't just surrender.

    Good to see that some people still fight the fight of being human, regardless of logic or reason.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @12:29PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @12:29PM (#509115)

      We humans are sure French! I agree absolutely fellow human, we must keep up the fight that is good, for our defined humanity. Please pass me some more of your ethanol product, I too enjoy imbibing vapors of intoxication.

  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday May 13 2017, @05:37PM (4 children)

    by edIII (791) on Saturday May 13 2017, @05:37PM (#509213)

    I'm not sure what all the conflict is about. It's a film festival where part of it is actually showing the film. As it is their festival, and a contest of sorts, they get to determine the rules. One of them, is that is must be played in an actual theater, in France no less. This doesn't seem to affect just Netflix, but Amazon too.

    If Netflix wants to participate it needs to conform to the rules of the contest, which seems perfectly reasonable to me. The fact this turned in a bunch of conflict, CEO's arguing blah blah blah, I find funny and strange. Of course Cannes can limit entries to those that are played in theaters. It's THEIR festival, not to mention, I believe the judges are in the theaters.

    As of fan of both Netflix and the Cannes Film Festival I don't see what the problem is, or how conflict is going to erupt from it. Netflix is billion dollar company that can afford to show its candidate films in a French theater during the festival. We have digital projection technology, so we do literally have the technology :)

    The request is reasonable and seemingly uncontroversial, but that apparently is just me....

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    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @07:59PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 13 2017, @07:59PM (#509243)

      I agree. The only explanation for why Netflix "exclusives" cannot be also shown in theaters, for paying customers, to the mutual economic benefit of all from the people to the theaters to Netflix (the "content creators" here), is greed, plain and simple. I'm sure there are lots of fancy words capitalists will use to justify the emergent effects of this base greed such as "contracts" "copyright" "deals" "market share" "demand" "scarcity" and more blablabla, but it's greed, and it is killing culture.

      Empires don't fall because they run out of steam. They fall because the greed and nepotism (but I repeat myself) of the ownership class strangles them to death.

      I'm glad I at least got an incarnation in during the fall of an empire. It has been educational.

      • (Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday May 13 2017, @10:04PM

        by edIII (791) on Saturday May 13 2017, @10:04PM (#509267)

        I agree. The only explanation for why Netflix "exclusives" cannot be also shown in theaters, for paying customers, to the mutual economic benefit of all from the people to the theaters to Netflix (the "content creators" here), is greed

        No, greed is what keeps them from showing it to maybe a few thousand people for free. It's a film festival and a contest to evaluate art. If Netflix is truly motivated by greed alone in this decision, which I don't necessarily know or agree with, then what it says is that they have no place in an art exhibit or contest.

        If Netflix places value on Cannes as an endorsement of their quality, then those fucking MBAs are also stupid as well as avaricious. It's not lost revenue, but marketing expenses. Exposure in Cannes, possible winning entries, the latter of which may heftily increase its value in their overall IP portfolio. But what the fuck do I know right? I'm just a dirty commie and hippie that could never understand business.....

        There is literally no good reason why Netflix can't show the film to what amounts to a minute fraction of of their subscriber base. It can even be argued, from the above, that they are performing a disservice to the shareholder. The most bigly of crimes in this world.

        In the best case scenario here, Netflix is just being childish and lazy. They most certainly can show the film in theaters, and it's fairly awkward and weird that they would object.

        To be fair, I've not heard Netflix object at all. This could be a story that others are fanning the flames too.

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        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday May 13 2017, @08:57PM (1 child)

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Saturday May 13 2017, @08:57PM (#509256) Journal

      I just noted this above, but the conflict is actually about the 36-month moratorium on streaming that threatrical releases are required to observe according to French law. Obviously Cannes still gets to determine its own rules, but Netflix's business model in supporting these films works less well if they have to wait 3 years to stream their own content again. Whether that request is "reasonable" or not likely depends on how much you want to insist on preserving traditional theatre experience by having a legally-required extended period before films can be available in other ways.

      • (Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday May 13 2017, @10:09PM

        by edIII (791) on Saturday May 13 2017, @10:09PM (#509270)

        Oooooooohhhh. Yeah, Netflix ain't showing the film in a French theater. I entirely understand their recalcitrance if the implication is also that it affects streaming services in France. I would imagine if they are that crazy to control it they would.

        A possible compromise would be to ferry viewers out past the island into international waters. I'm sure they could borrow a yacht or something to setup a floating movie theater.

        Ten times better if they staged a mock attack by actual pirates at sea :)

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.