Cannes opens door a little for streaming video companies
by Agency Staff
2016-05-11 13:07:49.0
CANNES — The Cannes Film Festival is partly opening the door for streaming video giants this year, allowing Amazon to make its debut on the Croisette while leaving Netflix out of its 69th annual session.
Festival director Thierry Fremaux says Amazon’s presence is good news because its SVOD (streaming video on demand) service releases its films in cinemas before they are streamed online.
The film industry prefers having these so-called "release windows" — usually three months — when they can show the film exclusively. Netflix releases its films at the same time in cinemas and online.
"Amazon is different from Netflix. It is a real distributor, producer," he said before Wednesday’s opening ceremony.
"They have Woody Allen but also some foreign films, so it’s good news because thanks to them these films will be distributed," he said.
The festival kicks off with Woody Allen’s Cafe Society, one of five Amazon films selected in Cannes. Three of them have been picked for the main competition.
Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon; Jim Jarmusch’s two films, Paterson and Gimme Danger; and Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden are also Amazon’s.
"The presence of Amazon is not significant (just) for the Cannes film festival, it’s significant for the whole industry of cinema," Fremaux said.
"I think it’s good news, it’s money, a new kind of money. Having Amazon buying four, five films is a very good sign showing cinema is alive."
This year, Netflix and Amazon bought a combined total of 12 films at the Sundance film festival and the Venice film festival screened Netflix’s Beasts of No Nation last year.
High alert
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said this week that security at the festival would be intense as France was still facing a high risk of attack.
With 45,000 people expected to visit the May 11-22 event, French authorities were on high alert with about 400 security agents, hundreds of police deployed and special forces ready to intervene, Mr Cazeneuve told a news conference.
Allen told film industry bible Variety that for him Cannes meant confronting two of his greatest fears — terrorism and journalists.
Lifetime award
Jean-Pierre Leaud, whose gaze into camera at the end of the 1959 movie The 400 Blows became a defining image of French New Wave cinema, will receive a lifetime achievement award at Cannes.
Leaud was an unknown 14-year-old when he played the troubled schoolboy Antoine Doinel in Francois Truffaut’s first feature, a role he reprised in four other Truffaut films as he grew up.
Reuters and AFP
The poster for the 69th Cannes Film Festival. Picture: REUTERS
CANNES — The Cannes Film Festival is partly opening the door for streaming video giants this year, allowing Amazon to make its debut on the Croisette while leaving Netflix out of its 69th annual session.
Festival director Thierry Fremaux says Amazon’s presence is good news because its SVOD (streaming video on demand) service releases its films in cinemas before they are streamed online.
The film industry prefers having these so-called "release windows" — usually three months — when they can show the film exclusively. Netflix releases its films at the same time in cinemas and online.
"Amazon is different from Netflix. It is a real distributor, producer," he said before Wednesday’s opening ceremony.
"They have Woody Allen but also some foreign films, so it’s good news because thanks to them these films will be distributed," he said.
The festival kicks off with Woody Allen’s Cafe Society, one of five Amazon films selected in Cannes. Three of them have been picked for the main competition.
Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon; Jim Jarmusch’s two films, Paterson and Gimme Danger; and Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden are also Amazon’s.
"The presence of Amazon is not significant (just) for the Cannes film festival, it’s significant for the whole industry of cinema," Fremaux said.
"I think it’s good news, it’s money, a new kind of money. Having Amazon buying four, five films is a very good sign showing cinema is alive."
This year, Netflix and Amazon bought a combined total of 12 films at the Sundance film festival and the Venice film festival screened Netflix’s Beasts of No Nation last year.
High alert
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said this week that security at the festival would be intense as France was still facing a high risk of attack.
With 45,000 people expected to visit the May 11-22 event, French authorities were on high alert with about 400 security agents, hundreds of police deployed and special forces ready to intervene, Mr Cazeneuve told a news conference.
Allen told film industry bible Variety that for him Cannes meant confronting two of his greatest fears — terrorism and journalists.
Lifetime award
Jean-Pierre Leaud, whose gaze into camera at the end of the 1959 movie The 400 Blows became a defining image of French New Wave cinema, will receive a lifetime achievement award at Cannes.
Leaud was an unknown 14-year-old when he played the troubled schoolboy Antoine Doinel in Francois Truffaut’s first feature, a role he reprised in four other Truffaut films as he grew up.
Reuters and AFP
