As festival season begins, a spat between Cannes and Netflix

The fight is indicative of a larger battle in the industry. There's a constant fight over theatrical windows--the amount of time between when a film shows in theaters and when it becomes available elsewhere. In France, these windows are sacred. Netflix, of course, has disregarded the notion of theatrical windows altogether. But by Netflix pulling out, the festival is losing some films by well-known directors like Paul Greengrass and Alfonso Cuaron, not to mention some swanky parties.