Boos and cheering for Okja at Cannes

Atechnical glitch halted the screening of Netflix’s first movie to compete at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but Okja, starring Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal, which opened to boos, ended to hearty applause.

One of the most keenly anticipated films of the festival, because of its stellar cast and director as well as Netflix’s decision to give it only a limited theatrical release, opened to a packed press screening Friday.

As the Netflix logo hit the screen, sections of the crowd booed, and the opening scene was difficult to hear due to heckling and slow hand clapping – apparently due to the film being projected in the wrong aspect ratio.

The projection was stopped, the screen adjusted and the movie then restarted, with the Netflix logo again being booed, but the rest of the film watched in respectful silence.

“This incident was entirely the responsibility of the Festival’s technical service, which offers its apologies to the director, his teams, the producers and the audience at the showing,” the festival said in a statement.

Gyllenhaal made light of speculation the screening glitch had been sabotage, possibly by Netflix’s opponents in the French movie industry angry at its refusal to release the film in theatres, saying: “It was the ALF I guess.”

French rules mean that movies cannot be streamed online until three years after their theatrical release.

“Cannes making an A+ case for the primacy of the cinema experience this AM.”

Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph film critic