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Netflix Won't be Going to Cannes After All

posted by chromas on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:12PM   
from the Oh,-no-room-for-Netflix-huh?-Fine,-I'll-go-build-my-own-film-festival!-With-blackjack-and-hookers! dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow9228

After a rule change disqualifying its films from competition, it won't screen anything.

Netflix won't be screening anything at Cannes this year, either in or out of competition. Despite debuting two titles last year, the first streaming provider to do so at the prestigious film festival, the backlash has been significant. The new rule banning any movie from competition that didn't have a theatrical run was a clear message: Streaming content creators weren't welcome.

"We want our films to be on fair ground with every other filmmaker," Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos told Variety. "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."

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/11/netflix-will-not-go-to-cannes-after-all/

From TechInsider:

For fans of famed filmmaker and actor Orson Welles, the news on Wednesday that Netflix would be pulling the movies it planned to show at this year's Cannes Film Festival — including the world premiere of Welles' infamous final movie[*] — followed the narrative of the legend's complicated career.

[...] Welles' daughter, Beatrice, is pleading that the streaming giant reconsider.

"I was very upset and troubled to read in the trade papers about the conflict with the Cannes Film Festival," Beatrice wrote in an email sent to Netflix head of content Ted Sarandos on Sunday, according to Vanity Fair. "I have to speak out for my father."

"I saw how the big production companies destroyed his life, his work, and in so doing a little bit of the man I loved so much," Beatrice continued. "I would so hate to see Netflix be yet another one of these companies."

[*] The movie is "The Other Side of the Wind"; see: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Original Submission

• It's France; what do you expect? It's France; what do you expect? (Score: 3, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:16PM (3 children)

  by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:16PM (#666159)

  And it's not like Netflix isn't used to getting kicked by everybody and their brother in the industry.

  "I was very upset and troubled to read in the trade papers about the conflict with the Cannes Film Festival," Beatrice wrote in an email sent to Netflix head of content Ted Sarandos on Sunday, according to Vanity Fair. "I have to speak out for my father."

  "I saw how the big production companies destroyed his life, his work, and in so doing a little bit of the man I loved so much," Beatrice continued. "I would so hate to see Netflix be yet another one of these companies."

  And she's blaming Netflix for this? Ha!

  --
  "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"

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• Re:It's France; what do you expect? Re:It's France; what do you expect? (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:36PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:36PM (#666165)

  Uuuugh, what is with the lack of comprehension?

  Orson Welles experience prejudice from big production companies, Cannes festival helped him out. Netflix has a new version of a Welles film which the daughter hopes will be shown at Cannes. With Netflix not showing the film the daughter feels like her father's work is being slighted yet again so she appeals to Netflix to participate at Cannes anyway.

  She isn't blaming them for previous wrongs, she is equating them with the big production companies and asking Netflix to stand behind her father's work instead of being bullied offstage.

  I think she's being a little narrow minded here, but it isn't the stupidity you think it is.

  Parent

  • Re:It's France; what do you expect? (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday April 13 2018, @02:31PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Friday April 13 2018, @02:31PM (#666473)

    Ted Sarandos says Netflix won’t be going to Cannes this year.

    In an exclusive interview with Variety, Netflix’s chief content officer says that the festival sent a clear message with a new rule that bans any films without theatrical distribution in France from playing in competition. Netflix could screen some of its upcoming movies out of competition, but Sarandos says that doesn’t make sense for the streaming service.

    “We want our films to be on fair ground with every other filmmaker,” Sarandos says. “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.”

    Looks like this is one of the few times it would've actually been better if the summary was just the first 3 paragraphs of the article verbatim :P

    Okay so Netflix does bear some of the responsibility. Still, the Cannes people are being a bit jerky.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"

    Parent

• Re:It's France; what do you expect? (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday April 13 2018, @02:26PM

  by tangomargarine (667) on Friday April 13 2018, @02:26PM (#666469)

  However, continuing legal complications in the Welles estate and a lawsuit by Welles's daughter, Beatrice Welles, caused the project to be suspended. When Welles died in 1985 he had left many of his assets to his estranged widow Paola Mori, and after her own death in 1986 these were inherited by their daughter Beatrice Welles. However, he had also left various other assets, from his house in Los Angeles to the full ownership and artistic control of all his unfinished film projects, to his longtime companion, mistress and collaborator Oja Kodar, who co-wrote and co-starred in The Other Side of the Wind. Since 1992, Beatrice Welles has claimed in various courts that under California law, she has ownership of all of Orson Welles' completed and incomplete pictures (including those which he did not own the rights of himself in his own lifetime), and The Other Side of the Wind has been heavily affected by this litigation.[26][27][28][29] The Guardian described how she "stifled an attempt by US cable company Showtime and Oja Kodar (Welles's partner in the latter part of his life) to complete The Other Side of the Wind",[30] whilst the Daily Telegraph stated that Beatrice Welles had "blocked" the film.[31] Matters have been exacerbated by much personal animosity between Oja Kodar and Beatrice Welles - Beatrice blames Kodar for causing the break-up of her parents' marriage, while Kodar blames Beatrice for attempting to block the screening or re-release of a number of her father's works, including Citizen Kane, Othello, Touch of Evil, Chimes at Midnight and Filming Othello. (The latter claim has been supported by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, who has accused Beatrice of being solely motivated by profit in claiming royalties from these films, then settling out of court as studios have been keen to avoid costly legal battles.)[32] A clause of Welles' will, specifying that anybody who challenges any part of Kodar's inheritance will be automatically disinherited, remains unenforced - Kodar sought to have it enforced in the 1990s, but could not afford the legal fees as the case dragged on.[26]

  Sounds like Beatrice is the standard rich kid inheritor brat.

  --
  "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"

  Parent