Netflix productions’ awards contention clouds opening day
CANNES, France — The 70th Cannes Film Festival opened on Wednesday under the lights of Cote D’Azur sunshine and highwattage stars such as Will Smith and Marion Cotillard. But a brewing storm over Netflix’s place at the world’s most prestigious film festival clouded the event as the red carpet was rolled out.
Optimism is high at this year’s Cannes, which features a lineup widely considered to be well-stocked with heavyweight filmmakers, including Todd Haynes (Wonderstruck), Sofia Coppola (The Beguiled), Michael Haneke (Happy End) and Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here). Rancor and controversy nonetheless dogged the festival’s preamble, as well as its opening day.
During the opening ceremony, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi helped to set a welcoming tone for the festival, calling it a “place where cultures speak to one another.”
Farhadi’s presence in Cannes contrasted sharply with February’s Academy Awards ceremony, which the filmmaker, whose The Salesman won best foreign language film, boycotted to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed travel ban on visitors from several predominantly Muslim nations.
Farhadi collected his Oscar statuette in France on Wednesday, from producer Alexandre Mallet-Guy.
But while Cannes maintained its status as an international melting pot, definitions of what qualifies as cinema continued to stir debate. For the first time, Cannes selected two Netflix releases — Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories — for its Palme d’Or competition.
French theatres, which have strict rules regarding streaming-service films, rebelled at the thought of a movie that won’t play on the big screen winning the Palme d’Or — the biggest award in film next to an Oscar, and to some, even more important. The festival relented and next year will not accept streaming-only films in the competition.
Earlier Wednesday, Pedro Almodovar, who is presiding over this year’s competition jury, read a lengthy statement in which he said: “I personally cannot conceive of not only the Palme d’Or, but any other prize, being given to a film and then being unable to see this film on a large screen.”
Coming from the head of the jury that will decide the award, the comment was striking and potentially means the Joon-ho and Baumbach films are already out of the running.
But Almodovar, a Cannes regular, drew applause for his defence of the theatrical experience.
“The size of the screen should not be smaller than the chair you’re sitting in. It should not be part of your everyday setting,” the Spanish filmmaker said. “You must be small and humble in front of the image that’s here.”
Will Smith, a member of the jury that also includes Jessica Chastain, Paolo Sorrentino and Park Chan-wook, stuck up for Netflix. This year, Netflix will debut one of its biggest-budget films yet, the $90-million US fantasy thriller Bright, in which Smith stars.
“In my house, Netflix has been nothing but an absolute benefit,” Smith said of his children’s viewing habits. “They get to see films they absolutely wouldn’t have seen. Netflix brings a great connectivity. There are movies that are not on a screen within 8,000 miles of them. They get to find those artists.”
Smith, who has not had a film play at Cannes before, was dressed dapperly and posed cheerfully as festival-goers screamed his name.
“West Philadelphia is a long way from Cannes,” an enthusiastic Smith joked, in reference to his hometown.
Security was greater than ever at the French festival, which has stepped up efforts to restrict access, added more metal detectors and even introduced an anti-drone system. France has been under a state of emergency since the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015. This year’s is also the first festival since a truck attack in nearby Nice last June killed 86 people.
On Wednesday, the heightened measures were already causing something unthinkable at the stringently clockwork Cannes — slight delays at screenings and press conferences. Festival organizers said everything was being done to maintain safety and the event’s celebratory atmosphere.
“You’re in a country which has got a lot of terrorist attacks. Charlie Hebdo, the Bataclan, Nice, one year ago. So we need to pay attention,” festival director Thierry Fremaux said.
Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts, with Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Cotillard, was the opening-night film. Critics, while praising some of the performances, weren’t enamoured with Desplechin’s farcical, self-referential drama about a filmmaker visited by a long missing ex-wife.
Ahead of the première of Ismael’s Ghosts, Monica Bellucci presided over an opening ceremony that included a slight riff on the best picture envelope flub that concluded this year’s Academy Awards ceremony.
In the Cannes version, a new envelope was brought out and the interaction dissolved into a dance that ended with a kiss from Bellucci.
The Cannes Film Festival runs through May 28, when the winner of the Palme d’Or and other awards will be announced.