Netflix's first Cannes Film Festival is not going well! Last night, audiences at a screening of Bong Joon-ho's Okja booed the film before it had even stared. This had nothing to do with Okja's quality, however, as audiences were booing because of the growing rift between Netflix and the French film industry. But, then things got worse before they got better.
According to the L.A. Times, "the projection was misaligned to cut off half of the actors' faces, prompting the audience to hoot and holler. The chaotic spectacle went on for several minutes until the movie was stopped and the problem corrected."
This is a strange thing to happen at the usually "methodically run" Cannes—although the festival's audiences have a long history of booing the films that premiere there—but nothing about Netflix's debut at the film festival has been normal. The streaming service has been met with resistance in France for a number of technical industry reasons.
This year, Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Frémaux selected two Netflix films to appear at the event—Okja and Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories. The selection of these two films issued a massive outcry from the local film industry. As the New York Times reports:
At the heart of the Cannes-Netflix clash is what's known as the French cultural exception, a law that requires a percentage of all box office, DVD, video on demand, television and streaming revenues to be pooled to finance homegrown films and help finance foreign films. The law also mandates a 36-month delay between theatrical release and streaming date. Netflix has not wanted to participate in the French system, and that offended some in the film industry here.
Following that initial controversy, Frémaux reversed his decision and promised the 2018 fest would require all films to have a French theatrical release. Netflix does typically offer an award-qualifying run for its films in the United States (particularly those that the service sees as Oscar hopefuls). Last year, the Academy issued a new ruling on what constituted a Oscar-qualifying release, stating "to be eligible for 2016 Academy Awards consideration in most categories, a feature-length film will still need to complete a Los Angeles qualifying run of at least seven consecutive days, but screenings during this period must now occur at least three times daily, with at least one screening beginning between 6 and 10 PM daily."
The French law, of course, is much more stringent with its ruling that a film cannot be available on a streaming platform until three years after its theatrical release. Amazon Studios' films are in the same boat as Netflix, thanks to what many consider an arcane law. According to Vanity Fair, Todd Haynes's Amazon-produced film Wonderstruck was also booed when the title card appeared on the screen.
Stirring up even more controversy this week was beloved Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar, who is serving as the president of the jury that will award the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or. "I personally don't perceive the Palme d'Or [should be] given to a film that is then not seen on the big screen," Almodovar said in a press conference this week. (He later clarified his remarks after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings raised his objections. "Not me nor any member in the jury will make any distinction between the two Netflix films and the rest of the films in competition," Almodovar said.)
While Netflix and Amazon have been under fire, the reviews for their films have been strong. Vanity Fair's review of Okja calls it "a rollicking rescue movie with deep ache and hope in its heart, Okja feels like just the right story for this grim political moment." AndThe Hollywood Reporter said of Wonderstruck, "Haynes has always been a ravishing visual storyteller, and his seventh feature is as seductively crafted as anything he's made, with exquisite contributions from invaluable frequent collaborators."
