Cannes 2019: Netflix films will reportedly not premiere at film festival for second consecutive year

The Cannes-Netflix dispute continues as it looks like the streaming giant won’t be a part of this year’s edition of the prestigious film festival either, according to a Variety report .

The streaming giant will be absent for a second straight year after failing to reach a compromise yet again. Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos and head of original films Scott Stuber and Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux reportedly even had dinner together over a week ago in Los Angeles. But it looks like they still failed to figure out a solution to their ongoing spat.

Moreover, most of the Netflix films are yet to be completed to compete in time for the festival, which begins on 14 May. These include Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat, David Michod’s The King, the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems and Noah Baumbach’s yet-untitled film.

Netflix pulled its films from last year’s festival after Cannes banned any films without theatrical distribution in France from its Palme d’Or competition. That essentially ruledout Netflix movies, which are released either day-and-date — on Netflix and in some theaters — or simply go straight to Netflix. In France, it’s a law that films can’t be released on home entertainment platforms until 36 months after their theatrical release.

That still left Netflix the option of playing out of competition at Cannes. But Sarandos said he didn’t want to send Netflix releases if they won’t be treated equally with other movies.

Cannes missed out on films like Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, Paul Greengrass’ 22 July, Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark and Orson Welles’ final unfinished film The Other Side of the Wind last year.