Cannes Film Festival organisers have decided to ban Netflix original movies from next year in order to protect the future of cinema. They released a statement explaining the reason for taking the decision.
The largest American movie and television streaming site is being accused of ignoring big screens and streaming the films on small screens, limiting it only to their subscribers. According to the festival organising committee, only movies screened on theatres will be eligible to compete at Cannes from 2018.
The controversy began after the online streaming platform refused to follow the French law, according to which movies shown on big screens cannot be screened on television at least for next three years.
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This year, two of the Netflix original movies, namely The Meyerowitz Stories by Noah Baumbach and Okja by Bong Joon-Ho, have made its way to the world's most prestigious and glamorous film festival. Both the movies are set to premiere on television in the coming months.
Although the festival organisers revealed that the screening of selected movies will not be cancelled, they stated that new measures will be taken against the steaming site next year.
"A rumor has recently spread out about a possible exclusion of the Official Selection of Noah Baumbach and Bong Joon Ho whose films have been largely financed by Netflix. The Festival De Cannes does reiterate that, as announced on April 13, these two films will be presented in Official Selection and in Competition," stated the organisers in a press release.
Check out the complete statement by Cannes Film Festival organisers:
The Festival de Cannes is aware of the anxiety aroused by the absence of the release in theatres of those films in France. The Festival de Cannes asked Netflix in vain to accept that these two films could reach the audience of French movie theatres and not only its subscribers. Hence the Festival regrets that no agreement has been reached.
The Festival is pleased to welcome a new operator which has decided to invest in cinema but wants to reiterate its support to the traditional mode of exhibition of cinema in France and in the world. Consequently, and after consulting its Members of the Board, the Festival de Cannes has decided to adapt its rules to this unseen situation until now: any film that wishes to compete in Competition at Cannes will have to commit itself to being distributed in French movie theatres. This new measure will apply from the 2018 edition of the Festival International du Film de Cannes onwards.
Meanwhile, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings also responded to the controversy on Facebook by stating that the streaming site has no plans to cancel the scheduled streaming of its original movies, which are selected for Cannes Film Festival 2017.
"The establishment closing ranks against us. See Okja on Netflix June 28th. Amazing film that theatre chains want to block us from entering into Cannes film festival competition," stated the 56-year-old entrepreneur.
