Despite the conflicts between Netflix and Cannes in the last few months, Netflix has picked up two films that made a splash and won prizes at Cannes: Alice Rohrwacher’s Best Screenplay winner Happy As Lazzaro (that shared the award with Jafar Panahi’s 3 Faces) and Lukas Dhont’s Best First Film-winning Girl, according to Indiewire.
These acquisitions follow this year’s Cannes competition ban on films that won’t have theatrical releases. Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories were Netflix’s entries in the competition last year.
Happy As Lazzaro follows the story of two young men, Lazzaro and Tancredi, a peasant and nobleman respectively who create an odd but unique friendship when Tancredi asks Lazzaro to help plan his own kidnapping. Their friendship blossoms but leads Lazzaro in search of Tancredi in the big city, a place that the young peasant has never experienced but must endure to find his lost friend.
Girl follows the story of a young girl, Lara, who is born into a young man’s body. She dreams of becoming a ballerina, but her born gender creates difficulties for her and her dreams.
Both films have yet to receive release dates, but we will keep you updated on Netflix’s release dates for these films.