Netflix bags Cannes favourite, more Marseille

Streaming service Netflix has acquired its latest first-run film, a French effort that critics received warmly at the recent Cannes film festival, and ordered a second season of French drama Marseille.

The movie deal sees Netflix take global rights (excluding France) to Divines, which was awarded the Caméra d’Or (for best first feature film) in Cannes last month and comes from director Houda Benyamina.

The film stars Oulaya Amamra as a tught but naïve female teenager living in a ghetto near Paris whose life aiming to get rich quick through drug dealing is changed when she meets a sensuous dancer.

“We saw Divines before it was award winning, praised by critics and received a standing ovation at Cannes, we immediately recognised it as an extraordinary film and acquired it early on,” said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix.

The film will be made available later this year on SVOD platform Netflix, except for in France, where local media chronology rules mean it is windowed until 2019.

While in Cannes, Netflix has also acquired Frank Grillo vehicle Wheelman, Sacha Wolff’s Mercenary, Brazilian period drama Aquarius, Danish drama The Day Will Come, Lebanese crime drama Very Big Shot, French comedy Journey to Greenland and Raman Raghav 2.0, an Indian thriller.

Other titles are still in negotiations as Netflix’s push into first-run film continues.

In related news, Netflix has commissioned a second season of French political drama Marseille. As the platform does not release ratings data, it’s impossible to know how it performed, but Netflix has deemed it worthy of a second run.