This is major.
According to Deadline, Netflix and the French Film commission have struck a deal that would allow the streaming giant early access to theatrical releases all under a revised windowing system.
The impact this would have on Cannes, or, more precisely, with Netflix original productions, is still unknown. This is a big win for French films that both want Netflix backing and a theatrical release in France, which wasn’t possible until this deal was struck today.
However, it doesn’t seem to change,say, the possibility of a Dominik or Baumbach showing up to Cannes this year, they'd still need to partner with a French distributor and only be able to get streamed 15 months after its theatrical release.
And yet, this corroborates very nicely with the intel I’ve been getting these past few weeks in regards to Netflix being “closer than ever” to a deal with Cannes to show their films at the prestigious film festival.
This year’s potential slate of Netflix films that could easily be Cannes-bound include Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde,” Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” Jeremy Saulnier’s “Rebel Ridge,” and, maybe, just maybe, David Fincher’s “The Killer.”