May 19, 2018

Netflix Acquires Cannes Winners ‘Happy as Lazzaro’ and ‘Girl’ After Falling Out With Festival

After pulling its films from the festival and giving the impression that it might leave the Croisette with little to show for it, Netflix has gone ahead and acquired two Cannes prizewinners: “Happy as Lazzaro” and “Girl.” Alice Rohrwacher’s follow-up to her Grand Jury Prize–winning “The Wonders” shared the Best Screenplay award with Jafar Panahi’s “3 Faces,” and Lukas Dhont’s film won both the Camera d’Or for best first film and Best Actor laurels in the Un Certain Regard section for Victor Polster.

The streaming service now owns the rights to both films in North America and Latin America. It’s been in a sort of dispute with Cannes over the festival’s decision to disqualify films that don’t receive theatrical releases from its vaunted Competition; last year Netflix had two movies in Competition: Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)” and Bong Joon-ho’s “Okja.” Notably, as a competition film at this year’s festival, “Happy as Lazzaro” would not have been able to play at Cannes if Netflix had acquired it prior to Cannes.

No release dates have been set for “Happy as Lazzaro” or “Girl.” Other big winners at the festival include Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters,” which won the Palme d’Or; Spike Lee’s Grand Prix–winning “BlacKkKlansman”; and Pawel Pawlikowski, who won Best Director for “Cold War.”

Source: IndieWire film