Netflix at the movies? Why the idea of ​​a festival bristles cinema patrons – The HuffPost

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CINEMA – Seeing a Netflix film in the cinema is currently a mission impossible. For the past few days, the world of the 7th art has been buzzing with the idea of ​​a “festival Netflix”Which could take place at the beginning of December in independent French cinemas to screen a dozen of feature films, for some not yet released. But the operators immediately asked the platform to streaming to give up this idea.

Sit in a red armchair rather than on your sofa to see Pieces of a Woman, Malcolm & Marie Where The Hand of God by Paolo Sorrentino and the long-awaited comedy Don’t Look Up with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep: this is what the project of the online video giant that assures Echoesthat it was only at the “thought process” stage when the idea started to gain attention.

Several cinema organizations have in fact already shown their opposition to this project, including those bringing together independent distributors, worrying about the organization of a “Netflix festival”, “a short-term attraction” for spectators which would amount to “A suicide in the medium term” for the cinemas.

Netflix outcry

“The ambition of this ‘festival’ is not the simple programming of a few films over a few screenings. This project has a strong symbolic and political dimension. It is about promoting a platform, ”denounces AFCAE, the French Association of arthouse cinemas, in a press release sent on Wednesday, October 27. “Netflix’s global and massive ambition is to exclusively broadcast series and films while deliberately sacrificing the ability to market these titles during a true release on the big screen.”

The National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF), for its part, called on Netflix “to renounce all responsibility for its project”, which it said would overshadow other theatrical releases, at a time where cinemas are still struggling to find their audience. “It would be shooting yourself in the foot to promote films that do not appear in the cinema!”, Adds Étienne Ollagnier, co-president of the Syndicate of independent distributors (SDI).

Streaming platforms, Netflix in the lead, are a scarecrow for some of the French cinema operators, who believe that they jeopardize the economic balance of the sector. Nevertheless, a strict media timeline, in the process of being revised after months of discussion with all parties, currently prevents films from being released on platforms at the same time as their theatrical release. With some exceptions, for example during film festivals.

“We must make do”

And if The echoes argue that for the moment, “a temporary operating visa – necessary to broadcast films in theaters – has not been requested”, several room programmers had already responded favorably to host sessions of this Netflix festival.

“Much of what American cinema does that is most interesting is no longer on view in theaters today. Every time we have been able to show Netflix films made for the big screen, we have done so ”, explained Patrick Troudet, programmer for the Utopia cinema network, to Release. “I find it more carrying cinematographic diversity than being the 800th print for the West Side Story from Spielberg in December. The game against the platforms is lost, the coronavirus has rolled out the red carpet for them. We must make do.”

Will Netflix maintain its festival project after this new outcry from some of the French cinema operators? “All the options are on the table, but we are not used to rushing through”, indicates a spokesperson at Echoes.

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