It would appear that the Cannes Film Festival is now considered to be the gateway to high culture as they’re effectively banning Netflix originals from the festival. You would think that this might be an outrage to some people that have actually decided to side with Netflix and start making more original movies than we’ve seen come out in the theaters in a long time, but then you might also be surprised to hear this come from Steven Spielberg:
“A lot of studios today would rather just make branded, tentpole, guaranteed box office hits from their inventory of branded successful movies than take chances on smaller films. Those smaller films that studios used make routinely are now going to Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix. Television is really thriving with quality and art. But it poses a clear and present danger to film goers.”
Who in the world, that’s a film goer considering the rising prices, would really care? Yes Netflix is easier and a lot cheaper than going to a film every week or every other night, but the experience of the cinema versus the experience of Netflix is still so vastly different that people don’t much care where the film comes from. All they want is a quality movie experience, and if it comes from something they can get at home or if it comes at the movie theater they’re going to follow it. But the idea of stating that films on Netflix can no longer be considered for awards no matter how good they are is kind of elitist and in truth a lot of garbage that says one thing: Hollywood is scared that a streaming service is going to steal their thunder. That means that they’re going to do everything they can to stop it from making it big and stealing away the people that used to go to the movie theaters to see their works.
Yeah, that really doesn’t sound like a sound strategy. A lot of people might care that the Cannes Film Festival is kept ‘pure’, but while that’s happening the Netflix originals will still be a part of Cannes, they just won’t be able to win any awards. That’s like saying you can go to someone’s party but can’t partake of the food or drink. Does that sound in any way fair? The only real way that people are going to stop going to the theater is when the last of them finally close down because of poor choices when it comes to the technology and services such as MoviePass horning in on the profits. Apart from that, theaters are fairly safe when it comes to streaming movies since people will always want to go out no matter if they have Netflix at home. The original movies are great, but there will always be features that people want to see that Netflix won’t have. So banning the originals from the festival is kind of a pointless gesture.
The biggest problem with Hollywood is that this makes them look as though they’re insecure about the fact that they’re running out of viable ideas. Oh yeah, I said it.
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