The Fédération Nationale des Cinémas Français (FNCF) criticised the selection of Okia by Bong Joon-ho and The Meyerowitz Stories by Noah Baunbach for Cannes Film Festival. The two films’ sales have been secured by Netflix, who will broadcast them on its Svod platform rather than in cinemas.
FNCF defines it as an “unfair competition”, since the decision to admit the two films at Cannes was made without consulting the association, which is a member of the Festival Board of Directors. And there is more: according to the federation members, the participation of the two films would infringe the rules of the festival, as the two films can’t be defined as “cinema works because they won’t be distributed in cinemas but only on internet”. The association does not question the freedom of choice of the Festival organisation, but it asks to clarify the issue, since the arrival of Netflix has completely changed the situation.
The controversy occurs right at the closure of the first term 2017 for Netflix, who has exceeded 2.5 billion dollar profits from streaming. In the first months of the year subscribers have increased by 5 millions, with a total of 98 million subscribers worldwide, out of which 50 millions in the United States only.
