For years, the Cannes Film Festival has excluded Netflix original movies from its lineup. But this year, that's about to change.
Two Netflix original films will be shown at Cannes this May, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movies shown at the festival include Okja, a sci-fi thriller directed by Bong Joon Ho, and The Meyerowitz Stories, directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Adam Sandler.
THR explains that Netflix's "online-first approach" deterred Cannes from allowing Netflix films into the festival. Amazon movies, meanwhile, have been shown at Cannes in the past, but they were shown in theaters before hitting the streaming service. Five Amazon movies were screened at Cannes last year. This year, Amazon has two films at Cannes: Wonderstruck, starring Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Amy Hargreaves; and You Were Never Really Here, starring Joaquin Phoenix and based on the Jonathan Ames novella of the same name.
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It doesn't look like Cannes changed its mind about Netflix bypassing theaters, though — instead, the streaming service is taking a cue from Amazon. Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories will both be released in theaters, THR notes.
Okja stars Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano, and Lily Collins, and tells the story of a girl trying to protect an animal friend from capture.
The Meyerowitz Stories, meanwhile, stars Ben Stiller, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Marvel, and Grave Van Patten, in addition to Sandler. According to Deadline, it's an "intergenerational tale of adult siblings contending with the influence of their aging father."
The Netflix news isn't the only shakeup to this year's Cannes festival, either. Cannes Festival director Thierry Fremaux told THR that TV shows will be screened at Cannes for the first time this year. The TV shows at the festival will include two episodes of the Twin Peaks revival and the second season of Top of the Lake, Quartz notes. The TV shows won't be competing against the films — the screenings are a bonus for the Cannes Festival's 70th anniversary.
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