Grab the popcorn and the Champagne: Ted Sarandos has lobbed the latest volley in the budding war between streaming juggernaut Netflix and the Cannes Film Festival over how films get seen.
In tres Cannes fashion, the Netflix head _ whose company's first Cannes premiere, Bong Joon-Ho's magical pig flick "Okja," sparked an all-out culture war over theatrical vs. digital distribution models _ dropped the grenade on his festival hosts Sunday night at his own swanky party.
Prompted by outraged French theater owners who voiced loud opposition this year after Netflix films "Okja" and Noah Baumbach's "The Meyerowitz Stories" were granted competition berths, Cannes hastily announced that, effective in 2018, only films with French theatrical distribution may vie for the Palme d'Or.
Asked by Variety if Netflix would return to Cannes under the new restrictions, Sarandos "at first said 'no,'" reported the trade publication. He then walked that hard line back: "Well, I shouldn't say that. It would be less attractive, for sure, because it would affect (Netflix's) festival strategy around the world."
Sarandos even gave the growing flap a cheeky nickname: "L'Affaire de Netflix," quite a scandal indeed in a year with a disappointing lack of l'enfants terribles making Nazi jokes, or movie stars sporting paper bags over their heads, or any real controversy, really, on the Croisette.
The conflict has divided the film world and dominated festival chatter this year at Cannes, forcing filmmakers and industry veterans to take sides in a philosophical and practical battle that cuts to the fundamental crisis of modern movie watching: traditional vs. digital distribution as battleground for the war over what really matters in the consumption, and business, of film.
On Team Netflix: "Okja" helmer Bong, naturally, who shrugged off the press-screening projection snafu, the audience boos at the sight of Netflix's logo on the big screen, and the public shade from competition jury head Pedro Almodovar, who last week slammed watching movies on screens "smaller than the chair on which you're sitting."
But when Netflix's deep pockets are increasingly financing and snapping up films that might otherwise land at traditional distributors, things get stickier. Working with Netflix was "a wonderful experience," Bong enthused at his film's presser.
"The expectation is always that your film will be seen on the big screen," Baumbach said at Cannes days later. His "Meyerowitz Stories" was filmed independently on 16mm before Netflix picked it up for a streaming and limited theatrical debut.
"I believe in that; it is a unique, singular experience that is not going away," he said.
