from the Oh,-no-room-for-Netflix-huh?-Fine,-I'll-go-build-my-own-film-festival!-With-blackjack-and-hookers! dept.
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/
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.
Related Stories
Netflix burns cash at a record pace, but investors love it
In its third quarter earnings statement on Tuesday, the company reported negative free cash flow of $859 million, the biggest figure in its history. Netflix continues to increase spending on original content as it seeks to compete with other players like Hulu, HBO and planned streaming services like Disney's, scheduled for next year. Netflix will reportedly spend at least $8 billion on content in 2018.
It would be a shame if someone were to pirate or illicitly stream that content.
Netflix has criticized the EU's local content quotas:
Netflix used its third quarter earnings report to criticize the European Union over a new content quota for streaming services. The EU, writes Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in the report, is "currently rewriting its audio visual rules" that will demand streaming services like Netflix "devote a minimum of 30 percent of their catalog to European works." Netflix's report acknowledged that catering to a specific audience encouraged more regional original programming for international audiences, but suggested that enforcing quotas on a streaming service could have unwanted negative effects.
Netflix is already set to spend $1 billion on European content this year.
Also at MarketWatch.
Steven Spielberg to propose Oscar rules that could keep streaming films out of contention
In the wake of "Roma's" three Oscar wins on Sunday, director Steven Spielberg is taking aim at streaming films' chances at future Academy Awards.
Spielberg will present his case to peers at an upcoming annual board of governors meeting at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the award-winning auteur will propose rule changes that would prevent streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu from competing in the Oscars without its projects getting a full theatrical run first. The news was first reported on Indiewire. "Steven feels strongly about the difference between the streaming and theatrical situation," a representative of Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment told the site.
[...] "Once you commit to a television format, you're a TV movie," Spielberg said last year during a conversation with ITV News about the increasingly blurry line that separates various media. "You certainly — if it's a good show — deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar."
[...] Spielberg had the topic on his mind when he accepted the filmmaker award at the Cinema Audio Society Awards last month. "I'm a firm believer that movie theaters need to be around forever," he said, according to Variety. Stressing that he very much admired the state of contemporary television, both for its stories and its tech advances, Spielberg conceded that "the sound is better in homes more than it ever has been in history." But, he added, "there's nothing like going to a big dark theater with people you've never met before and having the experience wash over you."
Also at Movieweb, Observer, and A.V. Club.
See also: The Spielberg vs. Netflix battle could mean collateral damage for indies at the Oscars
Previously: Targeting Netflix, Cannes Will Ban Streaming-Only Movies From Competition
Netflix Won't be Going to Cannes After All
Local Product Quotas for Netflix, Amazon to Become Law, EU Official Says
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:16PM (3 children)
And it's not like Netflix isn't used to getting kicked by everybody and their brother in the industry.
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?"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:36PM (1 child)
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.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday April 13 2018, @02:31PM
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?"
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday April 13 2018, @02:26PM
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?"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by black6host on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:48PM (1 child)
A film can't be art if it's not shown in the cinema, now can it? Actually, many have fallen who did not understand the times we live in today. Just as the buggy whip makers did before. Can Cannes stand on it's own with both feet stuck in the past? Time will tell.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Fluffeh on Friday April 13 2018, @01:31AM
There are a lot of different categories/prizes awarded during the festival. Given one of them is documentary - which is rather "un-artlike" by default, there is already an argument that the festival does not give these awards purely for art.
However, I am really surprised that the Cannes festival is indeed actually stuck with both feet in the mud so to speak, I would have thought given their bohemian predisposition, they wouldn't have cared where a film was shown to be entered. I mean there a is a whole section for short films - how many theatres are they shown in? This is clearly the Studios scared shitless of the "Streamers" and burying their head in the mud to go along with their feet.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:50PM
Sounds like they're trying to protect the old movie system instead of embracing the new as well.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday April 12 2018, @09:57PM (5 children)
Is there some kind of definition for that? Period of time? Number of screens? or something like that? If it is just having been shown in a theater I guess Netflix can just build/buy their own theater and show all their stuff there a few times if going to Cannes would actually be important to them. That said do they really care? Isn't the money for them all about selling subs so people can binge-watch superhero shows and lesbian prison dramas?
Is this really just about big screen snobbery from the cinema people? One last chance to keep the small screen people in their place? Before they all get overtaken by the YouTube clippers?
(Score: 5, Informative) by MostCynical on Thursday April 12 2018, @10:04PM (4 children)
it is a French law, not a Cannes rule..
http://variety.com/2018/film/news/netflix-cannes-rule-change-ted-sarandos-interview-exclusive-1202750473/amp/ [variety.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by black6host on Thursday April 12 2018, @10:25PM (3 children)
True, but misleading. French law may state that those in France may not see a movie until 36 months after it's theatrical release but the requirement of a theatrical release is strictly a Cannes requirement, not a legal one. I wonder, can Netflix release an original movie in France without theatrical release and be exempt from the 36 month rule? They certainly can with series/TV type shows. I'd bet a coffee/beer (your choice) that they can.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Thursday April 12 2018, @10:58PM (2 children)
If they show on Netflix, in France, to be eligible, and legal, the theatrical release would have to be 36 months earlier.
Netflix isn't going to want to shelve a show for three years just to try and be eligible for Cannes..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Fluffeh on Friday April 13 2018, @01:36AM (1 child)
So how does french TV work now? Surely there is some form of Pay-TV that has programming on air of movies without waiting for three years to air them. Surely the french people have access to DVDs in a release schedule inline with the rest of the world, so if it is on a DVD it has to be on media platforms like Netflix - or is there a magically high VPN usage in France where everyone hooks into another international market?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Friday April 13 2018, @01:48AM
Badly?
http://www.ifta-online.org/media-chronology-france-2017 [ifta-online.org]
http://www.cnc.fr/web/en/regulation-of-film-television-relations [www.cnc.fr]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Informative) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 13 2018, @02:33AM
I love France, it used to be one of the greatest Countries. And maybe it can be great again. Emmanuel is a very strong leader, very strong hands. Good looking guy, I love shaking hands with him. But I'm the President of Pittsburgh. Not Paris. And Pittsburgh has SO MANY film festivals! The Japanese Film Festival is going on right now. jjffpgh.org [jffpgh.org]
And Cleveland is tremendous, we held the Republican National Convention there. Which I won OVERWHELMINGLY. And they have an International Film Festival. Another one that's going on right now. They call it international because it has films from America and all over the world. clevelandfilm.org [clevelandfilm.org]
Columbus, they've been doing that one since 1952. When our Country was great. But it's a modern day film festival, they have video now. But, no pornos WHATSOEVER.
The Cincinnati Film Festival, that one is failing very badly. But a great leader could turn it around. Maybe when I'm done Making America Great Again I'll take that one over. cincinnatifilmfestival.com [cincinnatifilmfestival.com]
Lots of tremendous options, folks. Why not take a greatcation to beautiful Ohio? The heart of America's film industry!