According to Indiewire, Netflix is officially removing itself from the Cannes Film festival. This news comes after Cannes’ decision to implement a new rule, thus directly affecting the streaming service, as it stated the films must be aired in a French theatrical distribution in order to be eligible. Despite the rule, Netflix was still able to premiere films out of the competition, however, Netflix’ chief content officer, Ted Serandos said, “It wouldn’t make sense.”
Futhermore, Serandos says it’s disrespectful to the filmmakers to remain in the competition if there is no chance of consideration. He also condemns the Cannes Festival for only considering films of French distribution, saying it’s “completely contrary to the spirit of any film festival in the world.”
Last year, Netflix competed for the Palme d’Or in 2017 with Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories, but controversy started last year with the Jury President Alfonso Cuarón, who said, “films not released in theaters shouldn’t be considered for the Palme d’Or.”
This year, there are a number of films being considered for Cannes 2018 including Cuarón’s Roma, Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark, Paul Greengrass’ Norway, Orson Welles’ long lost The Other Side of the Wind and Morgan Neville’s Welles documentary They’ll Love Me when I’m Dead.
The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 8- 19.
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