The Cinema Against Netflix

The Netflix empire is growing in an overwhelming and unstoppable way. Nowadays, not being subscribed to the paid TV platform is practically like not having an internet connection. Netflix has gone from being a company that started by selling DVDs by mail, to a machine producing in almost all TV and film formats imaginable. These years of growth have been the same years in which a change in viewers'/consumers' habits and customs has taken place, changes that shape the current production and distribution landscape. Viewers no longer go to the movies, or they don't go in the same way they used to. Now they prefer to stay at home and enjoy the best products while sitting on the sofa.

TV networks have been processing this change as an improvement in the quality of TV series. Actors, technicians, and highly talented filmmakers have been switching from the big screen to the small screen so that viewers are eager to get home and enjoy the latest episode of their new series. This unstoppable process has led to the birth of platforms that not only allow you to watch all these products at any time but have also started to produce their own content. It sounds like unstoppable logic. Doesn't it?

Netflix is nothing more than an empire, like any TV network, major film studio, or business group with interests. So why all this controversy? The Cannes Film Festival has selected two titles from the Netflix production company to compete, and -as is the case with all titles on the platform- they will not have their corresponding theatrical release, but will premiere directly on television. But are all movies currently released in theaters? The answer is no. The number of products available far exceeds the number of theaters and the number of viewers. Almodóvar, one of the directors we most respect and admire, who also serves as the President of the Jury at the Festival, has already expressed his opinion: “It would be a paradox and a tragedy for the winner of the Palme d'Or or any other award to never be seen on the big screen.” He is right. But it is also a tragedy that many of the award-winning films, both in Cannes and in other major festivals, never make it to cinemas and are even almost impossible to see. That indeed is a tragedy.

The mission of the Cannes Film Festival is to bring the best films of the festival into competition, and apparently that is what it has done. After the controversy, a law has been enacted prohibiting films not released in theaters from competing in the festival. What will happen when most of the films by great filmmakers are produced by platforms like Netflix? What will happen when Almodóvar doesn't find funding in the traditional way and has the opportunity to produce his film this way? Perhaps the solution is to create exclusive film festivals for these products, but it would be a pity if prestigious awards like the Palme d'Or did not go to the most important films of the year. The old versus the new, an age-old debate that persists until the new is no longer new. Something that will surely happen eventually. Whatever the case, the most important thing is that both major and lesser-known directors have the opportunity to continue working and making their films in the best possible conditions. And in this aspect, new solutions like Netflix can be useful, or so it seems.