Thierry Frémaux: how long will the Cannes Film Festival resist Netflix?

At the Venice Film Festival, Netflix films are presented in majesty and even, sometimes awarded a Golden Lion. Our Cannes festival prohibits films produced by the platforms if they are not released in our cinemas. How long will Cannes remain an impregnable fortress? Our guest, the top honcho of the selection, outstanding film buff and director of the Institut Lumière: Thierry Frémaux.

The Cannes Film Festival was the first film festival in the world to offer, selected a film produced by Netflix. It was Okja by Bong Joon Ho (who received the Palme d’Or at Cannes two years later with Parasites) in 2017. A real outrage for the profession which had triggered whistles in the room from cinema exhibitors, producers, distributors in France, very worried about the confusion that this selection could create.

For Thierry Fremaux, the objective of the Cannes festival remains to invite directors at the competition level, but also to question the profession in the face of the changes in the distribution of films: “We wanted to open the dialogue, with the idea that the world was changing and that this change should be questioned, and we preferred that this be done in Cannes. Previously, it happened that films in competition did not yet have a distributor in France. »

The Power of the Dog Example

The movie of Jane Campion is a good example of the enthronement of films only available on platforms in the cinema world. Released in 2021, it was selected and premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where the director won the Silver Lion for Best Director. Power of the Dog also won three Golden Globes, including Best Picture Drama, as well as the Oscar for Best Direction at the 94th Academy Awards. Thierry Frémaux explains the delicate choice that festival juries have to make: “ There are very great directors, great actors, great cinematographers who find refuge within platforms like Disney, Netflix, Amazon Prime to pursue their art and therefore the major film festivals find themselves between a rock and a hard place. . That is to say that if they select these films and if they give them priority, they risk killing the cinemas which do not program them. »

France, a model for protecting and safeguarding cinemas

Since the health crisis and confinement, attendance at French cinemas has dropped by 30%. A figure that may seem huge, but which is not comparable to those of Spain or Italy where attendance has fallen by 70%. The director of the Lumière Institute evokes: “We have created a French model for safeguarding cinemas that the world envies us. We cannot recover in two months from a two-year crisis that the cinema has suffered more seriously than other sectors. This is also why the special day “See you at the cinema” is important for example. This is an opportunity to talk and discuss the future of cinema. We must not forget that at the beginning of the 1980s, Wim Wenders devoted a documentary, “Chambre 666”, which questioned the future of cinema, and in the 1990s, we were already talking about the death of a certain cinema . The 7th art has always experienced crises. »

Bertrand Tavernier, a movie theater marathon runner

In this program, Thierry Frémaux talks about his friendship with Bertrand Tavernier, who died in 2021: “Bertrand Tavernier’s cinephilia was glorious, full of empires, of legends. He was a movie theater marathon runner. No one has occupied the cinemas of France and Navarre like him. Until his death, he never stopped seeing films, visiting and going to look for something in great generosity, including with films that he had not liked and that he wanted to see again. . »

The eternal war of chapels between small and big screen

“Bertrand Tavernier thought like Fellini, that television was a cretin factory. » remembers Thierry Frémaux, “In Italy, Berlusconi’s television killed Italian cinema, but I find that in France the enthusiasm for popular cinema has managed to be preserved. »

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