This year’s dealmaker at the Cannes film festival

Amazon makes its debut at the 69th Cannes festival. The e-commerce giant’s streaming video on-demand or SVOD service releases its films in cinemas first before it’s made available for online streaming which is good news according to Thierry Fremaux festival director.

Fremaux told Reuters that Amazon is a real distributor and producer, different from Netflix. He said movies from Woody Allen and a few foreign films will be distributed because of them. According to him, “The presence of Amazon is not significant (just) for the Cannes film festival, it’s significant for the whole industry of cinema.”
“I think it’s good news, it’s money, a new kind of money. Having Amazon buying four, five films is a very good sign showing cinema is alive.”

Three of Amazon’s films have been chosen for the festival’s main competition while Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society” will kick off the event. Other Amazon films include:

  • Jim Jarmusch’s “Paterson” and “Gimme Danger”
  • Nicolas Winding Refn’s “The Neon Demon”
  • Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden”

It’s really great that Cannes 2016 went for the visionary filmmakers. This Amazon Studios‘ acceptance at Cannes has definitely opened possibilities or at least warmed up to SVOD players with big ambitions.