With Catcalls And Applause, Cannes Debates Rise Of Netflix

This year’s Cannes Film Festival has been a sprawling, international referendum on Netflix, with votes registered in catcalls and applause, and some of the biggest names in cinema staking out their positions.

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As the world’s largest and most prestigious film festival, Cannes has often been a kind of glitzy, French Riviera town hall that measures the fluctuations of the movie industry. This year, the seismic impact of Netflix and its swelling movie ambitions have taken center stage.

The festival for the first time has two Netflix films in competition for the coveted Palme d’Or top prize: South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s “Okja” and Noah Baumbach’s Adam Sandler-led “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected”). Those selections sparked an outcry from French exhibitors, who recoiled at the thought of one of cinema’s highest honors going to a film that won’t play in their theaters.

When an agreement couldn’t be reached between Netflix and French theaters, the Cannes Film Festival declared that next year, streaming-only films will not be accepted for the competition. But that move has done little to pacify the passions surrounding Netflix or the anxieties over the future of the theatrical experience.

Netflix’s logo, appearing before the two films, has been met by competing cheers and boos. When the projection of “Okja” had to be stopped because of technical error, the festival quickly put out a statement promising that no anti Netflix foul play was at work.