Netflix Admits Mistakes Were Made In Their Cannes Feud
A battle between Netflix and France’s Cannes Film Festival has been raging since 2017, but are we finally seeing the first signs of a possible peace between the two entities?
Earlier this week, Netflix CEOReed Hastingsadmitted that Netflix “made mistakes” during the streaming service’s tussle with the prestigious French film festival, marking the first time that anyone on either side has blinked in this particular staring contest. Read Hastings' full comment about Netflix’s Cannes feud below.
Deadlinereports that Hastings was speaking at a conference in France when he admitted that his company was at least partially at fault for the brouhaha that’s surrounded Netflix and Cannes.
In 2017, Bong Joon-ho’sOkjaand Noah Baumbach’sThe Meyerowitz Storiessparked controversy for being accepted into the festival, but not adhering to a French law that requires movies to wait three years between playing in theaters and appearing on a streaming service. Itbecame a wholething, and eventually got so bad that just the mere sight of the Netflix logo before a film screening caused festival-goers to boo.
This year was no less contentious. After failing to convince the streamer to play by their rules the year before,Cannes banned Netflixmovies from competition in the 2018 fest, which resulted in Netflix taking its ball and going home – the streaming servicepulled all of its movies out of the festival, even the ones that were going to play out of competition, likeOrson Welles’sThe Other Side of the Wind,Alfonso Cuarón’sRoma,Paul Greengrass’sNorway, Jeremy Saulnier’sHold the Dark, andMorgan Neville’s Orson Welles documentaryThey’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.
“The history of cinema and the history of the internet are two different things,” said Cannes festival headTheirry Fremaux, which led many to wonder if these two entities would ever see eye to eye. But Hastings' recent comments imply that he’s at least willing to step aside in this game of chicken – now all we have to do is wait to see if Hastings actually goes the extra mile to agree to the French regulations in the future, or if he’ll attempt to get Fremaux to meet Netflix halfway somehow.
“We love Cannes,” Hastings insisted. “We’ve been many years and have buyers going this year. They are very sincere at finding a model that works for them and us.”
