Netflix Co-Ceo Defends ‘Cuties’: “It’s A Film That Is Very Misunderstood With Some Audiences, Uniquely Within The United States”

Spencer Baculi |

Oct 13, 2020

Source: Mignonnes (Cuties) (2020), Netflix

Netflix Co-Ceo Ted Sarandos recently offered a defense of the company’s decision to license and stream the French film Mignognnes, aka Cuties, by stating that he believes the controversy surrounding the film is solely due to a simple misunderstanding, particularly “within the United States.”

Nearly a week after it was reported that Netflix was indicted by the State of Texas and charged with “promotion of lewd visual material depicting child” due to their distribution of the film, Sarandos voiced his opinion on the legal developments surrounding the film at the 2020 MIPCOM (Marché International des Programmes de Communication) expo, saying, “It’s a little surprising in 2020 America that we’re having a discussion about censoring storytelling.”

The executive would then claim that the film “is very misunderstood with some audiences” and noted that this misunderstanding was a problem “uniquely within the United States.”

“The film speaks for itself,” Sarandos would conclude. “It’s a very personal coming of age film, it’s the director’s story and the film has obviously played very well at Sundance without any of this controversy and played in theaters throughout Europe without any of this controversy.”

Sarandos’ comments would echo those made by the CEO of Bac Films, the studio that produced Cuties, David Grumbach, who claimed that “the protests [against the film] are coming from the right wing — from a fringe of ultra conservatism.”

Sarandos would also clarify that Netflix made no attempt to alter any of the film’s content prior to its debut on the platform this past September.

Despite his adamant defense of the film, Sarandos did not receive any questions concerning its highly sexualized marketing, which Netflix previously apologized for.

“We’re deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Cuties,” wrote the streaming giant in August. “It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which premiered at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description.”