'Establishment closing ranks against us': Change is afoot as Cannes turns 70

The Cannes Film Festival, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, has historically been about as fond of change as day-old baguettes.

As much as its screens light up with the world's most daring, adventurous cinema, the French Riviera festival protects its traditions more closely than its dapper hosts guard the famous Cannes red carpet.

But this year, even as Cannes prepares for a lavish birthday celebration, the Croisette is quaking with transformation.

This year's festival, which opens Wednesday with French director Arnaud Desplechin's Ismael's Ghosts, contains films from Netflix (Bong Joon-ho's Okja and Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories), movies from Amazon (including Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck), two high-profile television series (David Lynch's Twin Peaks revival and Jane Campion's Top of the Lake), and virtual-reality exhibits.

• Netflix movies competing at Cannes film fest spark outcry from exhibitors

'Establishment closing ranks against us'

But trying to keep pace with today's fast-changing media landscape has come with plenty of challenges for a time-honoured institution like Cannes. While unveiling this year's lineup, Cannes director Thierry Fremaux acknowledged the festival's internal hand-wringing over such issues. The festival, he concluded, is "a lab."

Yet some of the festival's experiments have already proven highly combustible.

After an outcry from French theatres, organizers announced last week that beginning next year, films without the intentions of a theatrical release in France won't be eligible for Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or competition — the festival's main slate of about 20 films.

The move effectively bars Netflix releases from Europe's answer to an Oscar race. Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings bitterly called it "the establishment closing ranks against us."

Changes unrelated to the programming are also underway. Heightened fears of terrorism since last year's festival means more security, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Local police officers in Cannes will be allowed to carry guns while extra officers will be brought in and bags will be subject to search on the city's famed waterfront. Cement barriers will be put up, to prevent the truck attacks carried out last year in Berlin and Nice.

Lack of female filmmakers?

Sofia Coppola has been coming to Cannes since she was a child, accompanying her father when he debuted Apocalypse Now. This year, she'll premiere one of the most anticipated films there, The Beguiled, her fourth at Cannes and second in competition.

"It's still a place that's celebrating and loves international cinema, and the idea of cinema," said Coppola. "I feel like that's at the heart of it."

Cannes has often come under criticism for a lack of female directors — not to mention occasionally turning away women without high heels from red-carpet premieres. There are 12 female-directed films among the 54 official selections this year, including three in competition.

"I guess there's three instead of two this year," said Coppola. "I think they have more there than we do here. There's always been more of a tradition of female filmmakers in France and internationally."

Coppola's film is its own kind of correction. It's a remake of Don Siegel's 1971 Civil War drama about a Union soldier (Clint Eastwood, who will also be at Cannes to teach a masterclass) hiding out in a Southern girls school. Coppola wanted to flip the story to a female point of view.

'I hope people just focus on the film itself'

The dust-up with Netflix has put a brighter spotlight on Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories.

"It's an interesting issue and it's going to continue," said Joon-ho, Okja's director. "While that was all happening, I was focused on post production in Los Angeles. That's really where my focus is. These other bigger industry-wide issues will naturally get resolved with time."

Okja, starring Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal, is the South Korean director's follow-up to Snowpiercer. It's a fantasy about the gulf between humans and animals, individuals and corporations.

"After all this talk has come and gone," said Joon-ho, "I hope people just focus on the film itself and the story and the images."