From Screening to Streaming

The Cannes Film Festival is meant to be a platform to not only show movies to the public for the first time, but to enable the purchasing of film rights within the film market. Whether the films are documentaries shown in smaller theaters or those participating in competition, they have the chance to be purchased. The world of the festival and online viewing platforms have merged at this years festival with Amazon Studios acquiring the U.S. rights to Ladj Ly’s film “Les Misérables.” This film is in competition at this year’s festival and premiered Wednesday evening. Not only has Amazon shown interest in the film, Netflix has as well. This sale to Amazon marks a major milestone as it is the first on-site acquisition of a competition film. On top of this achievement, the film is in French, and is the first film by director Ladj Ly. This purchase could start a trend of both competition films and others being acquired by online streaming platforms in the future, whether that being somewhat during the remainder of the festival or during those to come. 

Alison Gosselin