Netflix threatens to withhold films from Cannes fest

Los Angeles April 8 (IANS) Online streaming giant Netflix has reportedly threatened not to bring any titles to the Cannes Film Festival after festival director Thierry Fremaux said he won t screen any films from the platform in competition.

The situation is said to be fluid and a final decision won t be made until Cannes announces its official line-up on April 12 reports hollywoodreporter.com.

If Netflix carries through on the threat to pull out its movies the move could impact a number of high-profile filmmakers.

Such a move would be seen as retaliation for a new rule which was first announced after last year s fest. The officials have banned films from competition that do not have a French theatrical release.

Since Netflix titles don t play in French theatres and instead appear directly on the digital service that rule has barred them from the competition line-up.

--IANS
ks/rb/mr